One of the most important meeting of the demolition industry took place in Miami, USA, on Friday 14 October, and EDA was represented by its president, Mr. William Sinclair and its secretary general, Mr. Jose Blanco.
It followed the usual format of a one-day technical conference and an evening awards dinner, but with one difference – having been held in Europe since its inception in 2009, on this occasion it was located in North America for the first time.
The event was organised by Demolition & Recycling International magazine in co-operation with the US National Demolition Association, NDA, and numerous American industry professionals helped to promote the WDS on their side of the Atlantic.
There was also a record entry for the World Demolition Awards, with 15 countries represented and more than 50 shortlisted submissions contesting the 11 awards categories.
Highlights of the 10 conference presentations included Mr. Tim Barker of Aecom’s opening paper about decommissioning for the US military, Mr. Hiroshi Konno (Akashigumi Corporation, Japan and the event’s first ever Japanese speaker) on demolition in an area where a tsunami had killed 15,000 people, and the advanced demolition techniques employed in Keltbray’s Earl’s Court exhibition centres project in London.
In the evening there were 12 awards (including the overall World Demolition Award for the best of the individual winners) presented to 11 different companies across Europe, the Americas and Australasia. Five of the companies won an award for the first time.
The World Demolition Summit returns to Europe in 2017, with the next event in London on 2 November.
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