Showing Concrete

Yesterday was my annul trip to Birmingham NEC to visit the UK Concrete Show. It's always a good opportunity to catch up with a few people and to see the new development in the world of all things concrete.

The highlight this year was to see the large Utiform display area and catch up with Ian (our Utiform representative). We work with Utiform and sell their screed pumps and other products. They had a much smaller set up last year so it was great to see them expanding their reach this time round.

Linked T-Shirt

Part of my job is to design and procure promotional clothing like the branded caps t-shirts and polo shirts that we wear and (occasionally!) give out to clients... Sometime the designs are my own ideas and sometimes the ideas comes from Hughie (the MD) or even one of the staff.

For this one above (a one off exclusive run for Bauma) Hughie wanted to include a bar code and (at my suggestion) a QR code that could actually be read. And so here it is - a t-shirt that connects you to the internet!

The link is of course a page on our website specifically for people who have spotted someone wearing one of these cool puppies...

A Day To View

Paul Reilly, Brendan Reilly, Neil Coupe, Mark Reilly

The UK Concrete show has once again come and gone and once again I popped on up to the NEC in Birmingham to see what the great and the good of country's concrete industry wanted me to know all about.

Like last year's it didn't appear to be exceptionally busy but I did manage to speak to a few people I knew which I enjoyed.

The top team from Reilly Concrete pumping who recently bought an S 52 SX mobile pump from us were all there as was Neil, our Financial Director so we took the opportunity to get the photo at the top of Neil with Paul, Brendan and Mark Reilly in front of the new S 52 SX which they thoughtfully brought along with them to display.

It was heartening to see that Camfauds had also brought along a Schwing mobile pump which they had proudly on display. Their's was a new S20 machine.

I also got to see Utiform's new VH2 machine which I hear is already quite popular, so all in all, when added to general look round at what's going on in the industry, a day well spent.

Beer and Browse

The London Build 2015 Expo took place at the end of last week and I thought it might be worth a quick visit. So I headed over to the old Millennium Dome on Friday afternoon to see what the great and the good of the UK Construction industry had to offer.

I was interesting to wander round and see the various businesses touting their wares and services but I have to say the show itself scored a real winner with the offer of free beer and wine!

The overall show was not as big as I had expected it to be and there were no exhibits dedicated to concrete pumping - I suppose it is rather a niche market, even within the confines of the construction industry.

However it was a pleasant way to spend a Friday afternoon.

Evolving Concrete Show

Last week I popped in to see the newest London concrete-centric exhibition, Evolving Concrete. This was held in the Business Design Centre in Islington so it was relatively easy to reach (being that I am based in London).

What was nice about this one was that it was being put on by the Concrete Society itself rather than an 'events organisation'. So it was conceived with the specific needs of the industry in mind.

It was a fairly small affair - the picture above more or less shows the extent of it. However I did speak to some interesting exhibitors about various aspects of concrete and particularly, as the name would suggest, how concrete and its production is evolving. One of the most interesting nuggets of knowledge I picked up was about cement-free concrete which uses ground blast furnace slag in place of Portland cement plus a special additive. My second (but main) question was, "Does it react the same way to plasticisers, retarders and other admixtures?" - or in essence, is it just as easy to create a batch to send through a concrete pump? According to the gentleman I spoke to, the answer was 'yes'.

The main thing lacking from the show was the big machines you normally see at these things. It was clearly not possible to put a large mobile concrete pump or batching plant on the floor of this particular exhibition space and the only large piece of kit was parked outside across from the entrance.

I think it is good to have a concrete specific show in London - there are certainly a lot of people in the industry working close by. Although it certainly wasn't packed when I was there, which was around the middle of the day on Wednesday.  It was suggested that many people would turn up later in the afternoon when they had finished on their various building sites.

Perhaps the next one will evolve to be at a venue with more scope for larger equipment as well...

Exhibitionists

Yesterday I caught the train up to Birmingham to visit the UK Concrete Show. It's always interesting to see who else is doing what in the concrete pumping industry; as well as all the other new ideas and technologies across the concreting sector.

Having been very busy we decided we weren't going to be able to have a stall there this year and also one at Intermat in April. Transporting equipment, kitting out a space and all the additional requirements twice in almost as many months was going to stretch our resources a bit far. However it was good to pop up and have a look around.

Heaving it wasn't. I recognised many of the people wandering around as people who I had seen with stands of their own.

A few of us went up separately. One of our engineers left after an hour.

Still I enjoyed the chance to speak to a few of our clients and catch up with some of our sales and backup guys who are more often navigating their way around the great expansive corners of our country as they make sure all is well with our clients.

For those who turned up in the hope of seeing the Schwing Stetter stand, we will instead be showing off our new series 3 43 metre boom pump, our new mid range SP3800 stationary pump and our new Hi-Lo pressure control system at Intermat in April. See you there!