Josine Heijmans talks about new features at The Big 5
As The Big 5 2015 introduces a new hall space, event director of the show, Josine Heijmans, talks about how visitors and exhibitors could use and benefit from the new features
“We have a lot of new features this year,” Josine Heijmans, event director of The Big 5 Show says when asked how this year could possibly beat the last. The Big 5 Show is one of the biggest construction tradeshows in the region, and last year broke records with 80,000 participants from 147 countries. “It was completely sold out,” she says. “We had an overall 2,800 exhibitors and I am expecting we will reach up to 3,000 exhibitors this year, which means we will be hosting more than 200 new exhibitors.”
In preparation for steadily increasing demand for certified equipment, building materials, and expertise, The Big 5 will increase in size again in 2015.
This year Dubai World Trade Centre has built an additional hall in its exhibition space which will be utilised by The Big 5 Show.
“We will be the first show to use this new hall as The Big 5 Focus.”
She says that the new hall has given the show a chance to expand even further and introduce more features.
“We now have the opportunity to have more exhibition space. For example this year, we have further increased the number of free educational workshops and events. We will have over 75 workshops and also use two of the key theatres for the workshops, one of which will be the project management theatre and the other will be the technology and construction theatre.”
She says that the educational events hosted by the show makes them stand out from any other regional tradeshow. She adds: “Not only are all of these workshops free to attend, but visitors can also receive a CPD certification at the end of the session.”
All workshops will be open for all without any pre-requisites. However, participants must make sure they enter the class in the first 30 minutes, in order to pick up the certification at the end of the class.
Most topics covered in the workshops will be relevant to the industry and help participants gain thorough insight into the market. The workshops will be held under the six themes including project management, sustainability, business and market intelligence, design and architecture, affordable housing and sustainable communities, and technology in construction.
She says: “Even though we don’t have a particular theme, innovation and sustainability has been a running theme throughout the different events and workshops.”
According to visitor feedback, the events director notes that one of the most important reason why people come to this show is to source new products and the latest technologies in certain sectors.
However, she observes that there is more to it than just sourcing. She says that what most people take away from the show is the trends in the market and useful connections after effective networking during the show. “We have a very high percentage of international visitors, and exhibitors to the show. Most of them plan to enter the GCC market, and we as a show try to support them and give them relevant information that could help them become a part of the regional construction industry.”
The Big 5 Dubai 2015, together with Middle East Concrete 2015 and PMV Live 2015, will run from November 23-26 at the Dubai World Trade Centre.
