Close More Replacements and Keep Your Best Techs Through the Next Peak Season.
Chris Sund is an HVAC conference speaker for contractor associations, distributor meetings and company events. He covers the business that sits around the mechanical work: turning service calls and replacement estimates into signed jobs, hiring and keeping techs and installers, getting lead techs ready to lead, making the customer experience the reason people call you back, and using AI to clear the paperwork off the dispatch board. He loves speaking to blue-collar rooms, and he believes the sales and growth habits that grew his own company work in any business that serves customers.
What an HVAC Contractor Audience Gets
HVAC contractor associations such as ACCA, the Air Conditioning Contractors of America, hold a national conference each year, and state and local contractor groups meet in between. The owners, service managers, comfort advisors and lead techs in those rooms know airflow, refrigerant and load calculations far better than any keynote speaker. What they want help with is the rest of the business: converting more replacement estimates when the homeowner is collecting three quotes, holding on to good techs through the slow shoulder months, and turning their best service tech into someone who can run a department.
Chris does not talk about equipment, sizing or code, and he says so on stage. He talks about the sales, recruiting and leadership practices behind 10x revenue growth in two years at Uniti Med, and he puts each one in the language of kitchen-table estimates, maintenance agreements and a phone that will not stop ringing in July.
For Owners and GMs
A growth plan that does not depend on a heat wave, and price conversations that protect margin.
For Comfort Advisors
Replacement estimates that answer what the homeowner is really weighing, not just the equipment.
For Service Managers and Lead Techs
Leading the techs you used to ride with, and coaching new ones from the passenger seat.
For the Office and Dispatch
Practical AI for estimate follow-up, maintenance reminders, job posts and reports.
Topics for HVAC Conferences
- Winning more replacement jobs. An estimate that stalls is usually missing one thing. With LOCKS, a comfort advisor can tell whether the homeowner does not trust the company yet, cannot picture install day, or has not felt what it costs to nurse a failing system through another summer. More in how contractors win more bids.
- Recruiting and keeping techs and installers. Hiring for traits like grit, curiosity and coachability instead of waiting for a fully certified tech who is not coming, then giving every helper a visible path to installer, service tech and lead. See how to recruit and keep skilled trades workers.
- Leadership for lead techs and owners. Ride-alongs that coach instead of criticize, honest conversations after a callback, and owners who stop being the bottleneck on every quote. See frontline leader sessions.
- Customer experience in the home. Homeowners rarely remember the brand of the condenser. They remember whether the tech called ahead, explained the problem in plain words, left the utility room cleaner than he found it and followed up after the install. Those small moments decide reviews and referrals.
- AI for HVAC contractors. Turning a tech’s notes into a clear repair summary for the customer, drafting replacement proposals and maintenance agreement renewals, and writing job posts that sound like your shop. See AI for contractors.
Two Stories HVAC Rooms Remember
“To Me, Your Product Is Paper Clips”
Running sales and marketing for a brewery, Chris kept calling the buyer for the biggest retailer in the country until the buyer finally took the call and told him that to him, the product was paper clips. Chris stopped selling the beer and showed what it was costing the retailer not to carry it. The order came back as best sellers, every store, and a display. HVAC owners hear it as the replacement estimate stuck on “we’ll think about it”: the fix is usually stakes, not a discount.
The Hire Who Became a Top Producer
When Chris hired a recruiter at Uniti Med, he chose traits over experience, and that hire became one of the top producers. The interview question he still asks is “What’s the hardest thing you’ve done in your life?” For a shop that cannot find experienced techs, it is a better way to read the helper applicant sitting across the desk.
Proof: Contractor Stages
At the MICA 2026 Fall Business Meetings in Omaha, Chris closed the program for the Midwest Insulation Contractors Association with Take Back Your Time with AI, working through tasks the members brought into the room. In February 2027 he takes the same session to post-frame builders and suppliers at the NFBA Conference & Expo in Columbus, Ohio.
Chris would be an incredible addition to any live audience. I’ve had the privilege of seeing Chris speak a few times now, including at our company’s Sales Kickoff in front of 800+ people — which he crushed. Each time he finds a unique way to connect with his audience on both a personal and professional level, keeping everyone engaged and attentive.
Having Chris Sund as a Sarpy County Empower Breakfast speaker was a breath of fresh air. He was amazing — brought up all the things that make us all a little crazy and gave us new ways of handling objections. Definitely a great start to a day. I would always be happy to recommend Chris.
Chris is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to hiring challenges. I am excited to use the suggestions Chris provided in my next interview.
Programs for HVAC Contractors
Each program is built around your members, whether the room is residential service shops, commercial mechanical contractors or a distributor’s dealer meeting.
You Are Capable of More Sales
The LOCKS framework for comfort advisors and owners who want more estimates to turn into installs.
Winning the Talent Battle
Becoming the shop techs want to work for, and the one they tell their friends about.
You Are Capable of More: Leadership
For lead techs, service managers and install supervisors stepping up to run a team.
Your Team Is Capable of More
A whole-company session for the office, dispatch and the field together, usually booked for a kickoff before peak season.
Take Back Your Time with AI
The live working session booked by MICA, built around real contractor paperwork.
Formats
Each program runs as a keynote, a breakout, a half-day workshop or a full-day workshop, in person. Early-morning slots before the trucks roll are welcome.
Keynote
A general session with stories, laughs and one tool the room can use before the next service call.
Breakout
A management or service track session with time for real questions from owners and service managers.
Half Day
Comfort advisors and owners rework their own estimate follow-up or hiring process and leave with it written down.
Full Day
A leadership day for lead techs and install supervisors, or a full growth day for an owner group.
Who Books This Session
Related pages: Electrical Contractors Speaker · Skilled Trades Speaker · AI Speaker for Contractors · Home Services Contractor Speaker · How Contractors Win More Bids
Other trade association pages: Plumbing Conference Speaker · Roofing Contractors Speaker · Landscape Industry Speaker
What HVAC Conference Planners Ask
Is Chris available for ACCA and state HVAC contractor association events?
Yes. Chris is available for national conferences such as the ACCA annual conference and for state and local contractor association meetings. His contractor stages so far include the MICA 2026 Fall Business Meetings, and he presents at the NFBA Conference & Expo in February 2027. Each session is built around your members.
Chris comes from healthcare staffing. Why is he a fit for HVAC contractors?
Because selling replacements, keeping techs and developing lead techs are business problems, and those are the problems he has worked on for his whole career. He managed restaurants for years and then ran sales and marketing for a brewery before healthcare staffing, and he has always enjoyed blue-collar rooms. He leaves equipment, sizing and code to the people who know them.
What topics land best with an HVAC audience?
Winning more replacement jobs with the LOCKS framework, recruiting and keeping techs by hiring for traits, leadership for lead techs and owners, the in-home customer experience, and practical AI for proposals, maintenance renewals and paperwork. An event can book one for the general session and another for a breakout.
Can attendees earn continuing education credit?
Yes, and it has been done before. His sessions have been approved for CE credit at past conferences. The host association handles the CE application with its accrediting body.
What formats are available?
A keynote, a breakout, a half-day workshop or a full-day workshop, all in person.
You Are Capable of More
The bestselling book behind the keynote, and the winner of the How-To category at the 2026 Paris Book Festival. Ten principles for closing the gap between what a team is producing today and what it is capable of.
Every attendee at the MICA Fall Business Meetings went home with a copy. HVAC owners can do the same for their lead techs, comfort advisors or the whole shop before the season starts.
He Grew a Company by Selling and Keeping People
Chris is President & COO of Uniti Med and GQR Healthcare and COO of Nebula. He helped grow Uniti Med 10x in revenue in two years, which earned #3 on the Inc. Regionals list of the fastest-growing companies in the Midwest, and the company has been named one of Fortune’s Best Workplaces.
He spent his first ten years working in restaurants, then ran sales and marketing for a brewery, calling on store managers and buyers who did not have to say yes. Healthcare staffing is a business that rises and falls on finding and keeping skilled people, so the recruiting material comes straight from his day job.
He is the Paris Book Festival award-winning author of You Are Capable of More, and he writes for Forbes and Inc.
Stages I Have Spoken On
Where Contractor and Business Audiences Hear Chris
Contractor stages first, then the sales and business rooms where the same material was sharpened.
MICA Fall Business MeetingsOmaha, NE · Oct 2026NFBAPOST-FRAMENFBA Conference & Expo 2027Columbus, OH · Feb 2027Definitive Healthcare Sales KickoffBoston, MA · 800+ sellersGreater Omaha Chamber POWER ConferenceOmaha, NEemPower BreakfastBellevue, NEDisruptHR OmahaOmaha, NEAlso: Plumbing Conference · Roofing Contractors · Landscape Industry · All Industries · See all speaking engagements →
Bring Chris to Your HVAC Conference
Tell Chris who will be in the room, the format you have in mind and what your members are up against this year. You’ll get a quick, honest answer on fit and availability.
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