The Brno Construction Fairs 2006

14. 04. 2006

The Brno Construction Fairs (held on 25 - 29 April this year) are the largest showcase of the building industry and related sectors in Central and Eastern Europe.

The Brno Construction Fairs (held on 25 - 29 April this year) are the largest showcase of the building industry and related sectors in Central and Eastern Europe. The fairs always offer investors plenty of opportunities, new inspiration as well as supplier solutions that definitely contribute to the development of the Czech building industry and prove the high standard of the Czech construction sector.

The fairs “celebrated” entering the second decade (this was the eleventh consecutive year of the Construction Fairs) with a new element – what was the URBIS Forum of Investment Opportunities last year has now been transformed into the URBIS INVEST independent fair. It was attended by representatives from all the regions of the Czech Republic, including Prague, and, for the first time, also by representatives from abroad – Slovakia and Belarus. The fair also proved to be a unique public-private partnership providing an opportunity for representatives of municipalities to meet leading implementation companies of our country as well as  financial groups, real estate agencies and investors.

The traditional components of the Construction Fairs are IBF – the International Building Fair, SHK Brno – the International Building Services Engineering Fair, and ELEKTRO – the International Fair of Lighting Engineering, Electric Installations and Systems for Integration into Buildings.

The comprehensive offer of fairs was completed with EDEN 3000 – the Building Centre open all year round.

The figures that might characterize these unique fairs from another point of view are as follows:

• as compared with last year, an increase in the number of foreign companies exhibiting at the fairs of 28 % to 230 in total;
• an increase in the number of participating countries this year -  25 countries  from 4 continents (including the Republic of South Africa, China, Canada and other large countries  and also the official participation of Slovakia, Austria, Spain, etc.);
• the total exhibition area of the expositions was 56,735 m²;
• the number of paying visitors in the first four days of the fairs was 73,256;
• the number of accredited journalists in the first four days of the fairs was 487.

This year the fairs were exceptional in one more respect – their opening day was interconnected with ENVIBRNO – the 12th international fair for the development and protection of the environment and VODOVODY – KANALIZACE 2006 – the 12th international exhibition of water management. Both projects thus emphasised the links regarding the building industry and other sectors within the economy of any country.

The importance of the Brno Construction Fairs was also confirmed by the presence of a number of prominent guests from this country as well as from abroad. Among others, the fairs were visited by ministers Milan Šimonovský, Bohuslav Sobotka and Radko Martínek. Representatives of the local development departments of the V4 countries, Bulgaria and Romania used the exhibition grounds to negotiate financial assistance for housing estate rehabilitation. This was also the venue for the historical first meeting of the Presidents of the Czech and Slovak regions.

The five days were also filled with a packed programme of conferences, seminars, discussion meetings and competitions. The most significant of the events included the following conferences: Two Years in the EU, MOSTY 2006 – the 11th international symposium with 480 participants, the Day of Steel Constructions and the Congress of City Managers and Mayors of the Czech Republic.

The Construction Fairs were an opportunity to announce the results of prestigious competitions and award a number of prizes, among others also 7 gold medals from the IBF and SHK Brno fairs, the TOP INVEST 2005, the Construction Company of the Year, the Best Development of the South Moravian Region 2005, and the Bridge Structure of 2004 awards, and the prizes in the biggest domestic architectonic competition in the last 20 years – the Wooden House of 2006. During the entirety of the fairs, competitions among apprentices and students of technical schools were held on the exhibition grounds, e.g. the finals of the national competition on technical skills acquired by students of the heating technician, fitter study branch.

The exhibits at the fairs also included examples of anti-flooding measures, a bridge tank and a range of other items related to anti-flooding facilities.

The topics frequently discussed under the URBIS INVEST project were brownfields and the redevelopment of railway stations. The main topic of this year’s fairs – green energy – was promoted by means of seminars; the AURA 2006 project – a competition for the most impressive exposition of the fairs – was also to be seen.

VIn view of the fact that the major exhibitors at the Construction Fairs also included the largest construction companies operating in the territory of the Czech Republic, OHL ŽS was obviously present.

The exposition of OHL ŽS certainly belonged among the most interesting, presenting both OHL ŽS and ŽPSV. The fact that our company’s stand was installed in Pavilion V was perhaps the best advertisement for the work of our builders as it was OHL ŽS that was the general contractor for the Pavilion V construction!

However, our corporate stand did not serve only to promote our company. It was also a venue for many meetings and business negotiations both among top representatives of OHL ŽS and with representatives of investors and significant clients. Our stand also provided space for negotiations with our foreign cooperating partners, especially from Slovakia and Hungary.

The prestige of our participation in the fairs was also boosted by the fact that the exposition was attended by significant representatives of public and political life -  Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Transport of the Czech Republic, Milan Šimonovský, President of the Moravian-Silesian Region, Evžen Tošenovský, President of the Hradec Králové Region, Pavel Bradík, President of the Association of Building Entrepreneurs of the Czech Republic, Václav Matyáš, Mayor of Brno City, Richard Svoboda and particularly the President of the OHL Group, who is so special to us, Juan-Miguel Villar Mir,  to name but a few .

President of the OHL Group, Juan – Miguel Villar Mir, and, on his right, Francisco Marín Andrés, CEO for international construction of OHL.

It was the visit paid by the President of OHL that represented one of the most important moments of this year’s Construction Fairs for OHL ŽS.

However, we believe we have a lot to look forward to in the following year, during the 12th year of the Construction Fairs, and at the same time we would like to make use of this opportunity to invite all our business partners, friends and colleagues to visit our corporate expositions.