It has been 20 years - Let's celebrate the anniversary of Swegon Air Academy

How did it all begin?

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.... Oh, wait, that is another story. Albeit there are some similarities, right? It was a long time ago, yes, 20 years ago. It wasn't a galaxy, but it was a company called Swegon. And it was so far, far away; as the primary goal was to reach far, far away, with knowledge sharing.

Bright minds came together to brainstorm ways to share more knowledge with everyone interested in ventilation, indoor climate and people. Most likely, the idea of the neutral forum was already brewing in some minds for some time before that. However, officially, and the way we wanted to share knowledge was through physical meetings, where seminars were conducted for everyone interested in learning and connecting with experts.

Our neutrality and knowledge sharing – in a proper way

In a highly competitive market with numerous other players, the people in Swegon decided to do something different to establish their presence. In 2005, Conny Nilsson, one of the company’s senior consultants, established Swegon Air Academy (SAA) as a platform for knowledge sharing.

Swegon Air Academy's policy was back then, and still is today, to disseminate information neutrally, allowing all attention to be focused on effective knowledge exchange. Swegon Air Academy increases awareness about healthy indoor environments, energy issues and ventilation knowledge. In collaboration with leading experts in the field, even complex problems are explained in a clear and intelligible manner, making them accessible to those who need to know more.

It’s worth highlighting that while the name links SAA and Swegon, the Academy was always intentionally kept at a respectful distance from branded products or commercial systems. This independence opened doors to broader conversations around indoor climate, beyond what a typical company might explore. That neutrality made it possible to build fantastic partnerships with universities, researchers, institutes, engineers and industry professionals – connections that might not be as accessible through a corporate lens.

The key milestones for knowledge sharing through seminars and webinars

• Our first seminar was organised in Skara, Sweden, in the spring of 2005. In the same year, we also conducted seminars in France, the UK, Turkey, Finland, Norway, Denmark, and Russia. 
• We averaged about 25-30 seminars per year in our highest sharing years. And with so many seminars came great locations. It is hard to pick the best place to hold a seminar – could it be one of many cute chateaus in France, or the famous HMS battleship in London?
• Webinars are also a fantastic way to share knowledge, and we pride ourselves on delivering high-quality webinar topics in high-quality online recordings that are available for everybody forever. Crossing distances in just a few seconds via modern technology means we can provide hot topics instantly.

Be serious, be visible and be online – We have ways of sharing knowledge and exploring topics

The primary goal of Swegon Air Academy and the team have always been to share knowledge and explore emerging and interesting topics. There are many ways to share knowledge – offline, physical, online and many more. We have always strived to stay up to date and current.

For most of the Academy's existence, we have focused heavily on presence with seminars, marking the importance of knowledge sharing in a physical way. Until a few years ago when everything changed and everybody went online, and webinars became the norm.

To be taken seriously, we published our first and largest book, AIR by Swegon Air Academy, with over 600 pages on ventilation, energy, indoor climate and air handling processes. We followed by publishing two more books as quick guides on energy efficiency in buildings and energy & environmental certifications of buildings. And the fourth published pocketbook was on the history of ventilation technology. We also regularly contribute by publishing papers in conferences, scientific journals, and other media.

We always want to be taken seriously, be visible and be online. Our website has consistently emphasised the importance of indoor climate, ventilation, and human health in buildings. We launched our first website in 2008 with a green & white color scheme, changed it to black & white in 2014 to reflect the depth of our upgraded online presence, and completely overhauled our website in 2022 with extended webinar features.

We are also continually active on social media, starting with the LinkedIn group in 2009 and debuting the new LinkedIn page for Swegon Air Academy in 2022. Our secret is the YouTube channel, a treasure trove of many of our recorded seminars and webinar recordings.

We wear many hats – And we are proud of Think Tank

We are expanding the ways we share knowledge, taking part in many international projects, and being active in various organisations worldwide. To name a few, we are proud supporters of REHVA and collaborate with organisations such as ASHRAE, SCANVAC, CIBSE, EUROVENT and many more.

We, at Swegon Air Academy, are also involved in a wide variety of projects, organisations, and conferences, such as iSERVcmb, PassivHaus, the CLIMA conference, and the World Health Organisation (WHO), among many others.

And just two years ago, we established the Think Tank by Swegon Air Academy with the ambition to be a thought leader within the field of indoor environment, we founded a neutral forum where we gather leading researchers and other experts that meet regularly to discuss trends, insights, research and the different aspects of indoor environment and how it influences buildings and people.

We want to express gratitude to everybody and our call to action

We want to celebrate with all of you who are advocating for the importance of all issues connected to buildings and indoor environmental quality. You know who you are; most of you have been on this journey for much longer, and we are grateful for you sticking with us on this never-ending journey.

And as a message, we should announce the new Swegon Air Academy endeavours, right? This year, we have achieved a huge milestone – not one decade, but two decades of our existence. So, we should have something always in our sleeves, right?

Move by move, right? Rewrite history? Conquer the invisibility of indoor climate? Make others see it? That would be something! Help everyone understand the things that they cannot see, and which are invisible.

Our story is not fiction; it is fierce, loud and far more inspiring. Let us remind ourselves: Air does not always have to be visible. Sometimes we have to imagine it, and then we can understand it. So sometimes, we must persist.

And that is, friends, our goal, our promise and our ambition – to persist with knowledge sharing. And this is our call to action – we invite you to spread the word, invite your friends to share knowledge and join us on our quest.

Find out more about Swegon Air Academy

Are you interested in learning more about the Academy Team, our published books, collaborations and partnerships, and the Think Tank? Go to 'About us'.