“Our industry is like a village you like to live and stay within”

01 February 2010

I recently returned from my trip to Las Vegas where I visited the World of Concrete show. I will also shortly be going to Bauma in Germany, which I look forward to. We also have another exhibition of drilling, sawing and demolition called Demcon, which is in Stockholm, Sweden on the 9-10 September. With this exhibition it will make for an interesting year in shows for our industry. As we are coming out of the recession contractors should be looking at new equipment in drilling and floor, wall and wire sawing. As I know the world sales of equipment has dropped in the last two years and contractors will need to find the latest technology to embellish their old equipment. If they do not do this they will be storing up larger problems for the future. Contractors need to invest slowly and cautiously. However, they still need to move forward.

The diamond drilling and sawing industry is likened to a village. Where in a village most people tend to stay where they grew up, they sometimes work there and most rarely leave. On my recent trip to Las Vegas, where I went to the assembly board meeting of the CSDA, I was amazed to see a lot of old friends who are still on the board and have been for many years. I was a member until only a few years ago. We do try to bring in new and younger people onto the board of Associations and even the world assembly. However, we do seem to have a problem attracting new and younger faces. This is the same situation in Great Britain as well as in America. In America they are trying to solve the problem by asking the younger members to meetings and asking them for solutions. I mentioned I find this spreads a little larger as a lot of diamond drillers and sawers in Great Britain are getting older, we are finding not so many younger people are entering the industry. Whether this is to do with the computer generation of young people who want to sit behind a desk and not work in a manual construction job is one possibility.

Many supplier representatives also seem to be getting that little bit older and very few leave once they are in the industry. This could mean there are very few spaces open for new people to enter, as it seems to be a closely-knit industry.

The recent tragic death of Mr Mokin in Russia was very sad and talking to people amazed me just how many people knew him. It is a very tragic loss to the industry. It always surprises me just how quickly and easily news spreads around the world industry. This is why I highly recommend everyone joins the National Diamond Drilling Sawing and Demolition Association or even the IACDS meeting to find out the latest techniques.

Top supplier members at Bauma are giving lectures on large complicated jobs. I recommend people come to the seminar at Bauma in Hall B conference rooms B 11. You can register at www.iacds.org.online. The next world association annual meeting of the IACDS is Monday 26th April 2010 in Salzburg, Austria.

If you wish to attend contact Secretary Daniel Trachsel via email:info@iacds.org I look forward to seeing you there.

Best regards, Peter White

Back to news