With an attendance of 5,525 the 2011 METALCON International finished slightly ahead of the 2010 event. This annual conference and exhibition, held October 11-13 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, continues to hold its place as the industry’s leading venue for construction professionals to find new products and to learn all about the growing market for metal. W
This year’s show had 94% of its 2010 exhibiting companies returning. The 2011 show also attracted 33 new exhibiting companies whose products span roof and wall systems, framing, solar technology, accessories, support services, software, specialty tools and more. This variety is in line with METALCON’s comprehensive offering of products for the built environment.
The growing importance of high-performance buildings and metal’s role in them was also the topic of the Keynote Presentation by Kevin Kampschroer, Director, Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings, U.S. Government Services Administration. More than 500 people attended the session in which Kampschroer emphasized the importance for vendors in the supply chain to incorporate sustainable practices in their businesses and their products. He also advocated shifting the emphasis from evaluating design techniques for energy efficiency to requiring certain levels of building performance, or moving from LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), to LEEP (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Performance).
The value of metal in sustainable design and green building was highlighted in the exhibits, educational sessions and demos. For the third year, the value of pairing metal and solar systems was reflected in Solar Bay, which demonstrated these benefits through an interactive education program and full-scale mockups of different types of solar systems. Green Island, an area of exhibits dedicated to metal products used in building energy-saving structures, also helped educate visitors about metal’s role in sustainability.
Visitors were also able to learn about product applications in the MCA Demo area where daily demos provided insight on the latest roof and wall technologies and trends. In addition, each of three areas dedicated to residential roofing, commercial roofing, and wall panels were open for attendees to walk through and have one-on-one discussions with experts who presented the demos. Hands-on tool demos were part of each demo and visitors were able to test commercial grade tools for drilling, sawing, cutting, bending, and fastening.
Other activities and comments from METALCON exhibitors and visitors were captured on a show highlights video, which can be viewed www.metalcon.com.
The 2012 METALCON International takes place October 9-11, 2012 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, Rosemont, IL.
