Visitors thronged to Dubai World Trade Centre on the last day of the The Big 5 International Building and Construction Show, Middle East Concrete, and PMV Live as the Middle East's largest construction show concluded on Thursday.
Millions of dollars of business transactions have been reported at the event, as well as the show's largest-ever free CPD-certified education programme was also conducted during the event. More than 75 workshops and seminars were planned for the final day.
Turkey - third largest pavilion - was one of the countries that made its mark, M. Levent Bilgen, Turkish Ambassador to UAE said: "The show acts as a great meeting point because of Dubai's strategic location in the region, which comes between major markets in India and Europe."
The strategic location of those markets paid dividends for a number of companies that secured contracts at the show, including Polish company Techmatik, who signed a deal with Dubai's Consent LLC for the purchase of a Techmatik SHP 5000 concrete block machine. The machine can manufacture blocks with heights from 40mm to 550mm.
Dariusz Kupidura at Techmatik said: "We're a family owned company and relationships have always been important to us. This may be the start of an excellent business partnership."
Meanwhile Najmeddine Sahraoui of Italian company MB Crushers said the company has sold two of its crushers with a combined value of $85,000 to a company in Saudi Arabia. MB is a global leader in the production and marketing of equipment, machinery, and accessories. The crushers sold can crush, screen, and separate materials used in a construction yard.
Josine Heijmans, event director at The Big 5, who said that the event has proven to be another record-breaker for organisers and exhibitors. "With the addition of the Focus Hall this year, we saw an increase in exhibitors, taking it over the 3,000 mark for the first time," she said."It has been a strong show with great exhibitors, fantastic sponsors and our biggest ever educational programme."
Middle East Concrete and PMV Live also welcomed a record number of exhibitors, with 450 from 33 countries, and Nathan Waugh, event director of the two shows, said: "The educational programme this year was also strong and offered something unique to attendees. And the entertaining features, such as Selfies at Height and the Excavator Challenge attracted hundreds of participants who left with smiles on their faces. Many of this year's exhibitors have already booked their space for 2016."
Meanwhile Brussels-headquartered Ideal Standard International - provider of innovative bathroom solutions - operating in over 30 countries across Europe, Middle East and Africa is focusing on business opportunities of Middle East, Egypt and Africa through Ideal Standard Mena. Hafez Ahmed, CEO of Ideal Standard Mena, said: "The Big 5 exhibition offered a great platform to tap into the burgeoning growth opportunities in the region for our innovative bathroom solutions. Through our participation, we aimed to fully benefit from the possibilities of offering our world-class products amidst robust trends in the market. Our past participation in Big 5 was very successful and encouraging, and we see good potential to build on our market leadership."
