Modern Mining August 2015

EVENTS

BAUMA CONEXPO AFRICA 2015 will

From the point of view of the mining industry, which is currently in deep recession, the upcoming BAUMA CONEXPO AFRICA – designed to be a showcase for the latest in construction and mining machinery and equipment – is perhaps not being held at the most propitious of times. Nevertheless the organisers, B C Expo South Africa, report a tremendous response from both the construction and mining sectors and Elaine Crewe, the company‘s CEO, says the 2015 show will comfortably exceed in size the launch event, held in 2013 under the name of bauma Africa. A s this article was being written in mid-August, the amount of exhibition space booked was in the region of 68 000 m 2 compared to 65 000 m 2 in

countries, which has proved very successful. “In addition, I and some of my colleagues – including representatives of our German principals – have been on a ‘road show’ in the SADC region to promote the event. As a result, we’ve managed to secure the support of several important industry associations – for example, the Chamber of Mines of Botswana.” The venue for bauma Africa 2013 was Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand but the 2015 show is to be held (from 15-18 September) at the Johannesburg Expo Centre (Nasrec). Commenting on this decision, Crewe says that while Gallagher is an excellent venue, it cannot really cater for an event of the size of BAUMA CONEXPO AFRICA.

2013. In terms of visitors, the 2013 show at- tracted 14 700 visitors from 110 countries, just marginally short of the target of 15 000. Says Crewe: “Our target this year is similar and, in particular, we’re looking for more visitors from African countries (other than South Africa), as they constituted only 6 % of attendance in 2013. We’ve made a big investment in estab- lishing offices and agents in a number of Af- rican countries in order to publicise the show and we’ve also put up billboards in several

Elaine Crewe, CEO of B C Expo.

50  MODERN MINING  August 2015