Summit conference programme goes live

21 May 2014

The provisional programme for the conference that will be held as part of the 2014 World Demolition Summit in Amsterdam on 6 November is beginning to take shape. Confirmed speakers include MCM's David Mardigian, Fabio Bruno Pinto, Michael Corridan of Micor (on last year's Civils Demolition Award winner) and Dr Ahmed Amir Khalil of ASI.

Other papers covering a number of high profile projects from around the world are awaiting confirmation and hence are not yet included in the published programme. The programme can be viewed at www.demolitionsummit.com/conference. The papers that will complete the international programme will be added to the site over the next few weeks as agreement is reached so it will be worth checking the site regularly.

Unfortunately, the presentation scheduled on the simultaneous implosion of the five Red Road Tower blocks in Glasgow, originally part of the 2014 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony, has been overtaken by events. The blowdown was first dropped from the opening ceremony because of perceived safety concerns and is to be rescheduled.

Currentlly there is no firm date determined for the blowdown, with a number of possibles currently under discussion, but it is unlikely that a presentation will be possible during this year's conference. With luck, next year’s World Demolition Summit will therefore feature a report by Safedem’s William Sinclair on what will be one of the largest multiple simultaneous blowdowns ever carried out.

The Summit is made up of the conference and the evening Awards ceremony that recognises the achievements of the global demolition industry over the last year. The individual Award categories have been refreshed for this year, with full details available at www.demolitionsummit.com/awards. Just as a reminder, the closing date for entries is 31 July, 2014.