With our friends from the
Midwest Chapter of PHTA, we just
hosted our first-ever AQUA Live Spring
Training event at a Hilton resort in
Chicago. The event consisted of five
days of product training, general pool
and spa education, three evening
events, a successful expo hall, and a
brilliant performance from country
rocker Lara Bell and her band.
Attendees, exhibitors and speakers were
effusive in their enthusiasm, prompting
us to start making plans for next year, in
early March of 2025, exact dates TBA.
While vendor training and
certification classes ran all week,
seminars related to business and
technical tracks ran on both Wednesday
and Thursday throughout the daytime
hours and consisted of speakers
who know the Midwest pool and spa
industry from personal experience.
The exhibit hall was open on
Wednesday afternoon, allowing
attendees to get a look at the top
products in the industry while
simultaneously creating professional
and personal relationships with
exhibitors. The exhibit led right into the
live music performance from the Lara
Bell band, sponsored by Aqua-Gon, with
beer and wine from the bar and tasty
wood-fired pizza catered from a local
restaurant.
Attendees earned a number of
different PHTA certifications: Certified
Service Technician (CST), Certified
Pool Operator (CPO), Certified Pool &
Hot Tub Technician (CHTT), Certified
Maintenance Specialist (CMS),
while leading manufacturers such as
BioGuard, Pentair, Renolit, Hydro Pool,
Merlin, Raypak, Haviland and more
hosted training classes of their own
throughout the week.
On Tuesday night, the AQUA Live
networking event led into an all-time
record-setting WAVE event, sponsored
by BioLab, where a total of 87 pool and
spa professionals aged 40 and under
went bowling together and enjoyed
pizza and drinks. The WAVE initiative is
an ongoing effort to build a community
of young pool and spa professionals, a
dominant demographic at AQUA Live
Spring Training.
Ultimately, the goal of AQUA Live
Spring Training is to attract Midwestlocated
pool and spa professionals
who are looking to learn, collaborate,
and have fun — while relating to the
various challenges maintaining pools
in the Midwest can bring — all at an
affordable price. With our partners, the
vibrant PHTA Midwest Chapter, we
are building an annual, cost-effective,
regional training event that will advance
professionalism through education in
the pool and spa industry.
