When you bring your team to a conference, you want everyone to get something out of it — owners, managers, technicians, and office staff. ACCA 2026 delivers on that with breakout sessions spanning business strategy, technical training, leadership development, and talent management.
This year’s conference at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas runs March 15-18, and the breadth of programming means you can send different team members to different sessions and reconvene with a playbook that touches every corner of your operation.
Check out the full breakout session schedule and register for ACCA 2026.
Plugging the profit leaks
Most contractors are losing money somewhere, and they don’t always know where. Nexstar Network’s Jason McFadden leads Revenue Rescue, which helps attendees identify exactly where time, calls, and profits slip through the cracks — from underperforming tech routes to missed sales opportunities.
Chuck Worley from Worley’s Home Services and Jordan Baez from Millennium AC take a different approach in Messed Up to Fired Up, sharing marketing failures, expensive mistakes, and accidental wins from their own businesses.
For those thinking longer-term, Brandon Dawson from Cardone Ventures challenges the “just add more trucks” mentality in his session on the four pillars of building value. Whether you plan to sell someday or simply want a stronger company, his framework — scaling, optimizing, acquiring, and selling — changes how you think about every decision you make today.
When the business is the family (and vice versa)
More than 90% of HVACR contractors are independently or family-owned, according to ACCA and Farmington Consulting Group’s 2025 Contractor of the Future report, and ACCA 2026 directly addresses the challenges that accompany that reality.
Bryan Dodge returns to ACCA to lead Principles of an Unstoppable Family Business, covering the issues that don’t show up on balance sheets but can quietly destroy a company: trust breakdowns, unclear roles, and communication failures. His session on succession planning gets even more specific, exploring options from internal transitions to private equity partnerships.
For contractors weighing their long-term options, Kurt Hudson from LC Anderson HVACR and Fred Silberstein from SF&P Advisors join Dave Karofsky from The Family Business Consulting Group for a discussion about when and how private equity might support growth and legacy rather than undermine it.
Retrofits, refrigerants, and the callback killer
Your technical team has its own programming track. ACCA’s manager of HVACR design education, Ed Janowiak, leads Technical Retrofit, which covers how Manual J® explains why you can’t always replace like with like, how Manual S® guides equipment selection, and what happens when new airflow meets existing ductwork.
The refrigerant transition continues to dominate technical conversations, and Anthony Nash from A-Gas breaks down A2L requirements, compliance timelines, and safety considerations in Don’t Lose Your Cool. Eric Fitz from Amply Energy takes on heat pump system design in Designing Heat Pump Systems That Won’t Come Back to Haunt You, helping contractors navigate the complexity of Manual S® requirements, emergency heat, duct capacity, and utility costs.
Two sessions focus on callbacks. ACCA QI Certificates Chief Encouragement Officer Brian Feenie’s Callbacks: Kill or Be Killed makes the case that they’re the silent killer of HVACR businesses, while Manager of Technical Education Matt Akins’ Pain Management Bootcamp is a hands-on workshop where attendees bring real callback invoices for peer analysis.
What your leadership bench is worth
The leadership track addresses a challenge many growing companies face: people in management roles who aren’t yet leading effectively. Paul Adams from Columbia Home Services offers a workshop on measuring the value of your leaders using performance data and leadership competencies, resulting in a one-page Leadership Profile that highlights strengths and development opportunities.
For companies wrestling with operational complexity, Wyatt Smith from Upsmith leads Stop Hiring, Start Scaling, highlighting how AI agents can handle customer engagement, follow-up, scheduling, and membership growth, freeing up your best employees to concentrate on higher-value work. Kristen Deese from The Virtual CFO for the Trades brings the numbers into the conversation with Harness the Metrics That Matter.
Solving the technician puzzle
Finding good technicians remains one of the industry’s biggest challenges. Westie Magnuson from Cornel’s Plumbing, Heating & Air shares how they scaled from 34 to 65 employees (mostly techs) in under a year while earning a spot on Oregon’s Top 100 Companies to Work For.
Aaron Schuh from Recruit4Business leads Your Hiring Process is NOT Working. Let’s fix it!, breaking down the most common mistakes HVACR companies make when recruiting and onboarding. For contractors who’ve solved the hiring problem but struggle with development, Brittany Spencer from Nexstar Network leads Training Techs to Think Like Owners, and Danielle Wernert’s Teaching the Trades addresses the “training is too expensive” objection.
What’s coming over the horizon
ACCA 2026 also looks at where the industry is heading. Codes and Coffee LIVE brings together voices from ACCA Strategic Partners like Copeland and Rheem alongside contractors to discuss how AI might affect equipment and operations, how robotics could impact the workforce, and whether renewable energy will reshape the market.
On the marketing side, Tracy Paul from Cornerstone Advertising shares nearly 30 years of industry experience in What’s Working and What’s Not in Marketing Today, and V Digital Services covers how AI is reshaping Google Search in Winning Visibility in the AI Search Era.
Send your whole crew
ACCA’s annual conference is the largest gathering of HVACR contractors in the country, and the connections and insights that come from attending can shape your business for the year ahead.
ACCA 2026 runs March 15-18 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Register here to secure your spot.
The post Your complete guide to the ACCA 2026 breakout sessions appeared first on ACCA HVAC Blog.