Following a hugely successful ecobuild 2018 – which saw tens of thousands of industry professionals flood London ExCeL to explore the freshest thinking and latest innovations in the built environment – new owners Futurebuild Events have made a major announcement about the future direction of the event.
Upon its acquisition of ecobuild in December 2016, Futurebuild Events declared its intentions to give the event back to the industry and to reaffirm its commitment to innovation and sustainability. Today, the owners have revealed details about Futurebuild 2019 – the fulfilment of that bold vision.
Futurebuild 2019 will continue to be the industry platform for the fresh thinking, new innovations and leading partnerships and exhibitors that made ecobuild so well-respected for over 14 years. However, under the new banner, it will have even more focus, impetus and purpose.
Martin Hurn, managing director of Futurebuild Event Ltd, explains: “From the very start we set out with a bold vision to take an entirely new approach for the event, as well as how we worked alongside our audiences across the built environment.
“Futurebuild 2019 represents everything we set out to achieve. It will be an event for the industry, by the industry, and 100% committed to championing innovation and sustainability for the future of the built environment. After all, unless the future is sustainable, and unless we think beyond the status quo, we won’t have a future at all.”
Central to Futurebuild 2019 be a new, dedicated ‘ecobuild’ conference. The ecobuild arena will see industry experts, academics, community leaders and politicians come together to debate and explore cutting-edge thinking around the most critical social and environmental issues. A series of curated exhibits will immediately surround the arena, acting as a discussion point for key sustainability topics.
Hurn continues: “Over the years, the “ecobuild” name has become synonymous with the event’s industry-leading conference programme. So ecobuild will be an ideas forum which acts as a centre point of the event and which is dedicated to shaping the agenda and making recommendations across all aspects of sustainability.”
Positioning ecobuild at the heart of Futurebuild will allow the conference and neighbouring showcases to firmly focus on sustainability and help drive real change in this field. It will also give the rest of Futurebuild the flexibility to focus on wider construction issues as defined by industry feedback and input, including the skills gap, digital adoption and procurement.
This will take place through six ‘Futurebuild Hubs’, which will bring industry together to flesh out the big thinking and facilitate practical delivery. Each dedicated to a crucial aspect of the built environment, the Hubs will host cutting-edge exhibitors and deliver comprehensive content and educational programmes, including evidence-based seminars, onsite products, and in-practice demonstrations.
The Hubs are:
- Buildings: Covering all aspects of building – including new build, retrofit and refurbishment. The place to explore and debate building technology, procurement, legislation, facilities management and maintenance
- Energy: Bringing together all areas of the sector, including emerging new approaches, such as district energy, autonomous buildings and renewables
- Offsite: Showcasing an championing the latest thinking and innovations – including all aspects of design and delivery – in this growing area of interest for the construction industry
- Materials: Combining the latest innovations, research and understanding in mainstream materials, including concrete, timber, steel and masonry, as well as emerging new materials
- Urban Infrastructure: A space dedicated to all aspects of the city, apart from the buildings themselves. Discuss and discover all things around infrastructure, water, urban greening, the public realm, well-being inclusivity and anti-terrorism
- Interiors: Dedicated to all aspects of domestic and commercial interiors. Championing ‘design with purpose’ and placing a focus on crucial design elements such as colour, sound and materials
Industry reaction to the plans has been unequivocally positive, with numerous key strategic partners and exhibitors immediately signing up to be part of the event.
Steven Cross, Director of Commercial Development for RIBA Services, said: “We are looking forward to seeing Futurebuild 2019 develop based on the success of this year’s ecobuild. This year’s, conference programme and seminar streams have been excellent, with great content that has truly put the event at the forefront of knowledge sharing. They have also been extremely well attended and certainly brought a lot of our members to the event.
“Collaboration has been key – we’ve had a really good relationship with the Futurebuild Events team this year and hopefully that will continue into next year and grow further still. Given the success of the seminar and conference programmes at ecobuild 2018, we hope to be an integral part of that element of the event next year too. We’d also like to see more of our members speaking at Futurebuild 2019 – providing advice and guidance, as well as sharing their experiences with fellow members. The more we can disseminate knowledge and content the better.”
Andreas Simmer, UK Managing Director, Internorm International, said: “We have had another very successful year at ecobuild 2018 and have taken a number of good leads away from the event. We are also proud to have been an event sponsor.
“As the leading glazing company at the event, we are in a prime position to attract customers to the stand. We have always found ecobuild to be the best b2b event in terms of the calibre of people that attend, with large numbers of the types of architect and design professionals that we want to do business and build relationships with.
“The plans for Futurebuild 2019 are very exciting. We rebooked straight away and are looking forward to being part of it and continuing to showcase our products and innovations with like-minded professionals.”
Kathryn Legg, Marketing Services Manager at Marley, commented: “We had two stands at this year’s Ecobuild – one for the plumbing and drainage side of the business and one to officially launch our new SIPs modular system. Nobody knew about the new Marley Modular Systems brand before today but we’ve still been inundated with enquiries, and even had designs through from people who had been on the stand on the first day.
“This is definitely the busiest event we’ve exhibited at and we love the different districts. We’re looking forward to developing the brand even further and coming back to showcase its journey next year!”
Concluding, Hurn said: “Our experience in developing the 2018 event has demonstrated the value of partnerships and working in close collaboration. We’re hugely excited to be able to announce our plans for Futurebuild 2019, however, it is still early stages and we are keen to work as closely as possible with representatives from across the built environment to ensure it truly is the most stimulating, memorable and ‘must-attend’ event possible.”
To be part of the future of the industry’s most forward-thinking event, get in touch today: Martin.Hurn@futurebuild.co.uk.
