Australia’s only international air conditioning, refrigeration and building services trade exhibition, ARBS has announced an exciting line-up of informative and leading-edge seminars for the 2016 event.

The panel discussion on the WELL Building Standard is expected to draw a lot of interest from the industry, given that ‘wellness’ is building up as the next big thing in the property sector. The seminar, Is Wellness the Next Green, will provide a nuts-and-bolts explanation of the WELL Building Standard and its focus areas, explore opportunities and obstacles to its take-up in Australia, and why healthy buildings are becoming the ‘next big thing’.

The panel includes Romilly Madew, Chief Executive Officer - Green Building Council of Australia; Tony Armstrong, International WELL Building Institute (IWBI); and Mark McKenna, NDY Group Leader, Sustainability - Norman Disney & Young with the discussion to be moderated by Tony Arnel, Executive Director & Global Director Sustainability, Norman Disney & Young, and President, Energy Efficiency Council.

Join experts from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Building IQ, Dexus Property Group, A.G. Coombs and Norman, Disney & Young to discuss the impact of big data on the industry. In this session a panel of experts will outline the technology that’s improving performance for tenants, and how building owners are responding to the increasing demands for embedded smarts within intelligent buildings.

The seminar on the Australian Leadership in Geothermal Technology for Residential Projects by Dr Martin Larisch of the University of Queensland will be sure to draw a crowd as it discusses one of the largest geothermal installations in the world at a 950-house estate in Western Sydney, especially the development of an Australian designed and manufactured geothermal system.

A presentation by Warrick Stannus of AG Coombs on BIM to Prefabrication – Designing to get the Prefab Benefits, will benefit delegates interested in prefabrication in building construction. Substantial quality, safety, system performance and construction program benefits that the offsite manufacture of HVAC system components offers are beginning to be realised. This presentation will cover the opportunities and methodologies for designing for offsite manufacturing of HVAC and other building services systems.

The information-packed seminar presented by Patrick McInerney, Director, Ozone and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Policy - Department of the Environment, on the HFC Phase-Down in Australia, will provide an update of the progress towards a global HFC phase down agreement through the Montreal Protocol and discuss the independent action Australia can take ahead of a global agreement through the review of the Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas legislation.

Building and construction professionals will be interested in the seminar presented by Andrew Barr, Project Engineer from AG Coombs on how good projects can go wrong. This presentation will identify a number of commonly observed problems and share solutions with the audience.

ARBS 2016 will be held from 17-19 May 2016 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, South Wharf, Melbourne, Victoria.