Dr. Ulrich Lotz, Managing Director of FBF Betondienst GmbH and organizer of BetonTage. The spoken word counts!
Dear Sir or Madam,
we are for the second time with the complete event in the Congress Centrum Ulm with the Maritim Hotel. A very good digital infrastructure, a bright airy ambience, a convincing catering and hotel capacity, much more parking space and the chance to experience the second Midsummer Night at BetonTage tomorrow in the outdoor area on the terrace. There will again be a daily live stream of the plenary and the afternoon session from the Einstein Hall as a hybrid format, this allows to participate live in the lectures even from a distance.
More than ever before, we are mapping the complete construction process when building with concrete and focusing on precast concrete components. Research institutes, manufacturers, suppliers, structural engineers, architects and contractors from the construction industry are in dialogue under the motto “Changing times in concrete construction”, with a double mission:
On the one hand, concrete construction must become much more sustainable: with lighter structures and resource-saving use of materials. On the other hand, we are so self-confident that we are convinced that with modern prefabricated concrete components, we represent the most sustainable construction method of all in the long term.
For this purpose, you can put together your personal desired program in more than 120 presentations. How can you build in a way that conserves resources? What contribution does the concrete and cement industry make to this? What are the current findings of research in this area? Where are the trends heading? The BetonTage would like to answer all these questions. We are expecting more than 1,000 participants on each of the first two days, and a good 800 on the third day, as unfortunately it was not possible to invite the numerous architects to attend free of charge. The core target group, the manufacturers of precast concrete parts and concrete products, has increased compared to the previous year, as have the representatives of the construction industry, where there is already the fourth “Future Day Construction Industry” together with the colleagues from the construction industry.
In focus: Climate change and the CO2 debate
Concrete is the most widely used building material in the world. The production of the 4.5 billion metric tons of cement alone accounts for around 7 percent of the world’s CO2 emissions. One of the most urgent tasks of the cement and concrete industry is therefore to develop innovative technologies to reduce CO2 emissions and turn the supposed disadvantage into an advantage. The efforts the industry is currently making to improve its environmental footprint are a common thread running through the entire program. Whether in research, pavement construction, infrastructure construction, but above all in carbon and textile concrete, which takes up a particularly large amount of space, with driving forces such as our congress partner Composites United.
Looking to the future – beyond the horizon
But we do not want to forget to look ahead, as we received this morning from Prof. Bernd Raffelhüschen, Dr. Ludwig Möhring and Prof. Manfred Curbach. The construction industry bears great responsibility and it will actively shape this change on a large scale. At the “Future Construction Day” on Thursday, one of the visionaries of lightweight construction with concrete, Prof. Lucio Blandini from the renowned ILEK in Stuttgart, will explain his ideas on the subject, in the tradition of his predecessor Prof. Werner Sobek.
Proven: Precast concrete components in focus
Manufacturers of precast concrete components remain the core target group of the congress. A large part of the program therefore continues to focus on topics relevant to the industry. Important technical impulses are provided by the product-specific panels that have been planned with the relevant trade associations. They range from lectures on structural precast concrete construction, concrete products for road construction, landscaping and gardening, civil engineering and sewer construction to cast stone. Innovative production and manufacturing processes, the latest developments in concrete technology and selected property reports show where the journey is headed in these areas.
Practical benefits for manufacturers – exhibitors provide impetus
However, the main drivers of innovation and impetus for practice are, to a large extent, our exhibitors from the supplier industry, who will be presenting new products and processes for practice in short lectures on two days in the Innovation Forum. We complement the format with other current trends such as non-metallic reinforcement or the use of R-concrete. The exhibition is the centerpiece next to the congress program, it is fully booked and all meetings of the first and second congress evening take place in the middle of the exhibition, the dialogue and networking gets a special quality.
Host country Norway: Pioneer in Carbon Capture
Our guest country this year, Norway, is presenting itself under the coordination of my Norwegian colleague John-Erik Reiersen with its business model of storing CO2 in depleted oil and gas caverns under the seabed: space for all of Europe’s CO2 for 1,000 years. Norway has already proven with its sovereign wealth fund that it is possible to invest assets intelligently; by the way, one of the fathers of the construction is Prof. Raffelhüschen, who is with us today.
We also present a study to prove the sustainability benefits of concrete building component structures compared to lightweight wood construction and show innovative ways in which Norway is attracting and training young professionals for the industry.
International commitment
With the 24th edition of the BIBM Congress in Amsterdam from September 27-29, 2023, we offer an international insight into the industry developments for concrete components. The renowned Japanese-influenced 5-star Hotel Okura offers an exceptional setting for this. Under the motto “Green – digital – resilient” you will receive valuable information and the exhibition offers an international cross-section of the supplier industry.
You will find information in the conference folder, digitally at bibmcongress.eu and also here at booth 127 on the ground floor, right by the ice cream truck, from the Building Congress Forum, our joint subsidiary with Bauverlag.
And visit us on social media, too, where we promote industry work for sustainability in building with concrete components, for example, through our monthly video podcast #TalkConcrete. The Concrete Days also have their own profile there and already have almost 3,000 followers.
