UK CONSTRUCTION WEEK REVIEW

UK’S LARGEST BUILT ENVIRONMENT EVENT

MAde a WELCOME RETURN TO LONDON

UKConstruction Week London returned to ExCel London from the 2nd to 4th May 2023. UK Construction Week (UKCW) is one of the UK’s largest construction events, covering all facets of design, build and product innovation. It’s an event that helps to provide visitors with answers to what, when, where and how we build our future. This year certainly lived up to its reputation.

Sponsors of this year’s UKCW included AICO, Cemex, BSI and ABC Warranty. It was co-located with Concrete Expo, the UK’s number one show for concrete technology, applications and products, as well as The Offsite Show and Grand Designs Live, the leading self-build, renovation and home improvement event.

Green Living Live, also showcased a variety of eco-friendly products and services within Grand Designs Live. This year’s UKCW London was the biggest to date. With the addition of 20% more exhibitor space, it enjoyed a record-breaking year with an unparalleled number of registrations, up 6% from last year. 10,000 products were on display and over 300 leading companies exhibited at the event. Exhibitors included: Aico, HP Construction Services, Xpedeon, Betonblock, Liebherr, Premier MBP, DeWalt, Armcon, Configured Platforms, Giatec Scientific Inc., Zebra Technologies, Herongrange Group Ltd, Zero, PRO-TEK plus many more.

Architect and Channel 4 presenter, George Clarke, officially opened the 3-day show. This year’s show had a key focus on ‘Culture Change in Construction’.

There were many key exhibitors and influential speakers leading discussions and debates on innovative solutions for quality, fire safety, sustainability, offsite manufacturing, mental health, and improving diversity and inclusion.

The Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity wowed the UKCW visitors with their brightly coloured van as part of their “Make it Visible” campaign. It’s a campaign dedicated to making welfare and wellbeing visible on site. The team even delivered a talk at The Culture Change Hub at UKCW where speakers, Robert Muldoon and Lee Anderson, shared their experiences with mental health within construction and the importance of reaching out for help and support.

The dedicated sustainable start-up area, a new addition for London UKCW 2023, allowed for new businesses to showcase

UKCW also took the opportunity to give out many awards at the show, including awards for the following categories:

Most Sustainable Exhibitor - Winner IPG Energy

Best Space Only Over 50sqm - Winner HOME-MMC

Best space Only Stand under 50sqm - Winner Fischer Fixings UK Ltd

Best Shell Scheme Stand - Winner Eco Foundry

Most Interactive Stand - Winner WOWNOW Hire

Best Marketing Campaign - Winner ABC+ Warranty

Best Start Up - Winner MyCircle innovative sustainable products. The Net Zero area was aimed at educating the industry on how to meet the standards that are required to become more sustainable and ensure Net Zero targets are achievable.

This area attracted a variety of innovative solutions, including CEMEX’s new Vertua range of products and solutions, which addressed the need to build a carbon-neutral, sustainable, and circular future. Atkins also took the opportunity at UKCW to host the UK launch of their HP SitePrint.

This year’s event also featured apacked line-up of speakers from backgrounds all over the industry, including Lord Callanan, Mark Thurston (HS2), architect and Channel 4 presenter George Clarke, BBC presenter Victoria Derbyshire, and BBC journalist and presenter Simon Jack!