Building International Partnerships: JoinWise at the ASHRAE Region XII CRC

International expansion is often discussed in terms of market size, business opportunities, and growth strategies. But behind every successful cross-border partnership, there is something more fundamental: relationships built on trust and market understanding.

At JoinWise, we believe that entering a new market requires more than identifying potential clients or sending proposals from a distance. It requires presence, understanding, active listening, and long-term interactions.

Early this month, our co-founder, Bruno Cerqueira Martinez, was in Jacksonville, Florida, to participate in the ASHRAE Region XII Chapter Regional Conference (CRC), taking another step in JoinWise’s continued engagement with the United States and the broader North American built-environment market.

“Being back in Jacksonville gave me the opportunity to reconnect with professionals I’ve known for years and to meet new architects, engineers, consultants, contractors, and industry leaders. These conversations are valuable because they help us understand how the market is evolving, what companies are looking for, and where there is potential for collaboration.”

- Bruno Cerqueira Martinez, Co-Founder, JoinWise

International partnerships and business development are not simply about opening doors to new markets. They are about understanding what lies behind those doors: how local industries operate, what challenges companies are facing, how decisions are made, and where specialized expertise can create value. This market intelligence allows Joinwise to build connections between Brazilian technical expertise and market demand in North America and Europe in a way that is relevant and credible.

Why Occupying the Right Industry Spaces Matters

ASHRAE is organized from the grassroots up. Individual members participate through local Chapters, which are grouped into Regions. Each Region comes together annually through its Chapter Regional Conference.

Region XII is particularly diverse, bringing together Chapters from Florida, the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. This creates a unique environment in which professionals from different countries, cultures, technical backgrounds, and market realities come together around the future of the built environment.

For JoinWise, occupying these industry spaces is strategic. Being present at a conference of this magnitude allows us to engage directly with the people shaping the market, understand emerging priorities, and develop relationships that cannot be built through digital outreach alone.

It also strengthens JoinWise’s visibility within the professional networks where future partnerships are formed. For a hub connecting Brazilian engineering firms with international markets, being part of these conversations is essential to building market credibility and access.

International Partnerships: Creating New Connections Across the Industry

Among the activities at this year’s CRC was the first Region XII Means Business Speed Networking Event, a pilot initiative designed to help members meet professionals beyond their usual Chapter circles.

Through a series of short conversations, participants introduced their areas of expertise and learned about the work being developed by other members throughout the Region.

The initiative demonstrated the value of creating structured opportunities for interaction within a geographically and culturally diverse professional network. It also complemented the informal conversations taking place throughout the conference, creating multiple entry points for professionals to identify common interests and potential areas of cooperation.

From Market Observation to Market Understanding

Research, digital outreach, and online meetings are valuable tools for international business development. But they provide only part of the picture.

Direct engagement with the market offers a different level of context. Conversations with professionals working across the industry reveal how companies are responding to changing project demands, what capabilities are becoming harder to source, which priorities are gaining traction, and what organizations expect from external technical partners.

The Jacksonville conference provided precisely this type of insight. Discussions highlighted challenges increasingly relevant to the built environment, including growing project pipelines, limited internal capacity, demand for specialized expertise, sustainability requirements, building performance, BIM coordination, and increasingly complex project delivery.

These are not simply market trends. They point to specific areas where companies may need additional technical capacity without necessarily expanding their internal teams.

Turning Market Intelligence Into International Collaboration

For JoinWise, the value of participating in these industry conversations ultimately comes from what happens after the conference: deeply interacting with the market-players allows us to better represent the capabilities of Brazilian engineering companies, communicate their value in terms that resonate with clients, and identify where our expertise can solve necessities.

This is where our role becomes particularly relevant: connecting North American demand with qualified Brazilian technical-service companies and creating the conditions for partnerships that are commercially viable, technically credible, and designed for long-term value.

Because international growth does not begin with a contract. It begins with presence, meaningful conversations, and the willingness to build trust over time.

About the Author

This article was developed by JoinWise based on insights shared by our co-founder, Bruno Cerqueira Martinez, during the ASHRAE Region XII Chapter Regional Conference (CRC) in Jacksonville, Florida, in August 2026.

Through its network of Brazilian engineering and technical-service companies, JoinWise connects clients in North America and Europe with specialized expertise across building performance, engineering, sustainability, energy efficiency, BIM, and the built environment.