Company Announcement - The African Construction and Totally Concrete Expo provides a unique gateway into doing construction business across the continent’s high growth and high risk markets. The subcontinent requires 40 million tonnes of new cement capacity alone in order to meet rising urbanisation and growth rates with the region's population forecast to grow from 1.1 billion people in 2013 to 2.4 billion by 2050. Both industry titans and new entrants into the local marketplace find value in the African Construction and Totally Concrete Expo experience because the platform provides an outlet for construction business development alongside practical insight into managing daily operations in the African context. The event unites the world’s leading pioneers of cement, concrete and construction, bringing together African and international expertise with more than 80 world-renowned expert speakers that share their expertise into new insights and aspects of cement, concrete, building and construction. The 2016 edition of the event has new and exciting features that includes an indoor and outdoor expo featuring nearly 200 exhibiting companies.

One of the featured spotlight speakers at the 2016 event is Thierry Bogaert, CEO of Bogaert Architecture in France and pioneer of industrial architecture.  With more than eighty major schemes in 20 countries, Bogaert participates regularly in the design and modernisation of industrial facilities or, more prosaically, in their visual regeneration. Some of his flagship projects of honourable mention include the complete modernization of the Beffes cement plant in France, the spectacular face-lifting of a factory near Istanbul in Turkey, the design of grinding plants in La Rochelle, France and in Kampala, Uganda, as well as a central and operation building for a gas plant in Qatar. “My specific expertise has naturally led me towards theoretical research into the factory of the future for the benefit of large industrial groups on the margins of COP 21 in Paris,” says Bogaert of his contribution to both architecture and industry.  In addition to his extensive architectural expertise, he is full of passion for concrete and its unlimited design opportunities. Thierry Bogaert has also created a luxury perfume, Voile de Béton, to capture the mineral and urban beauty of concrete in a light, fresh scent and promote the endless possibilities of the world’s most widely used building material.

Every year the conference content is informed and overseen by an Advisory Board whose members represent expertise across the cement, construction and concrete markets, thus creating an event designed for the industry by the industry.  The 2016 Advisory Board includes a comprehensive range of 22 international experts from Dr David Lambertin, Researcher in the Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Cementitious Materials at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission to Joe Osae-Addo, CEO of Constructs LLC in Ghana and Prof John Provis who specialises in cement materials science and engineering at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom.

Over the course of three days, the 2016 edition of the event brings together more than 6000 construction experts from more than 40 countries worldwide to facilitate an interactive exchange of knowledge and promote public and private sector collaboration within the industry. The conference offers innovative and interactive content delivery that addresses strategic issues affecting infrastructure delivery and discusses the latest developments and technologies associated with the cement, concrete and construction industries. "African Construction and Totally Concrete Expo, with endorsement from the Concrete Society of Southern Africa, is Africa's leading platform where concrete innovation transforms research into practice," says John Sheath, CEO of the Concrete Society of Southern Africa, of the event.  An indoor-outdoor exhibition showcases the latest products and solutions available to deliver projects on time and on budget and offers free technical training workshops aimed to promote capacity building and skills development for the local built environment.

Endorsed by more than 80 media and association partners and sponsored by Marley Building Systems, PPC, AfriSam, FAW, Pan Mixers South Africa, Bosch, Carmix, Elkem, MEKA, Priedemann, Stihl and Wall-Ties & Forms Inc., African Construction and Totally Concrete Expo is the only all things cement, concrete and construction event in Africa that provides the entire industry ecosystem with the tools and solutions to navigate Africa’s high growth markets and ensure ROI on projects of all sizes.