Concrete Event & Concrete Experience 2023: 'En route' to sustainable and circular concrete

Thursday, November 16, 2023 Concrete Association organizes the 65th edition of the Concrete Event, at the Van Nelle Factory in Rotterdam. The moment in the year where the concrete (construction) sector meets. A conference with leading speakers on the latest developments in the industry, combined with an exhibition floor and numerous networking opportunities where you gain knowledge, share knowledge and make knowledge. This year's theme is "En route" to circular and sustainable concrete.

The coming decades will call more than ever on our ability to smartly adapt the country to changing conditions. Global warming and related demographics mean that the building task will be substantially different from what we were used to.

In December 2018, the College of State Advisors published Panorama Netherlands, a document that takes an integrated approach to the four main themes - climate adaptation, circularity, energy transition and urbanization. This vision shows a direction that is not prescriptive, but presents choices and defines clear principles. Other interpretations and elaborations are of course possible. What kind of Netherlands do we want to build? And in what way does concrete fit into that? At the 2019, 2020 and 2022 Concrete Day/Beton Event editions, the program explored in more detail the implications this vision of the future has for building with concrete. 

The world does not stand still, developments follow at a rapid pace, so it is time to move forward. A new theme will take center stage at the Concrete Event for the next three years. Here the four program lines submitted to the National Growth Fund (NGF) from the Concrete Reinvented development program will be kept as sub-themes: 

1) Development of new materials;

2) Adaptive and circular design, procurement and delivery;

3) Life extension and reuse of concrete;

4) Social capital: develop and share knowledge and skills for the new concrete chain.

Within the first three subthemes, Concrete Association gives ample space to all kinds of innovations within the sector. For the fourth sub-theme, it is working with teachers and students at the college, university and university levels. "We, as Concrete Association, see it as our task to get the chain moving in this transition to circular and sustainable concrete. That is why the theme of the Concrete Event 2023 is the route towards this," said Concrete Association director Maikel Jagroep. "We bring the entire sector together. From young to old, with the aim of joint growth and development, contributing to a future-proof concrete (construction) sector."

In 2019, the Concrete Association organized the Concrete Experience for the first time; a program specifically designed for students from college, university, and vocational schools to learn about the industry. To increase the connection with business and the sector, the Concrete Experience was organized at the same time as the Concrete Event. At the Concrete Experience, students can do their own activities, experience and witness the diversity of the concrete chain and get to know the many companies and professionals on the exhibition floor.

For more information about the event, visit www.betonevent.nl