As one of New Zealand's largest and most influential building industry expos, this year's event covered the entire industry value chain, with numerous leading brands taking part. A wealth of offerings and ideas came together to create a major industry celebration.
NZCBIA members and leading representatives from several supporting organisations cut the ribbon together to open the event
This year's expo occupied more than 1,000 square metres and featured over 100 exhibiting businesses and brands. An upgraded venue gave the event a fresh look befitting a major international exhibition. Under the theme “Shaping Future Living Together”, the expo showcased new ideas to accelerate, simplify and improve the future development of New Zealand's building industry.
As NZCBIA's longstanding core partner and diamond sponsor, PlaceMakers presented building professionals with a range of powerful online tools designed to simplify ordering and make work easier. With the PlaceMakers Trade Portal and Trade App, customers can check orders and delivery progress, calculate material quantities, add team members, view trade prices and skip counter queues, saving both time and effort!
Founded in 2016, property research platform Relab joined NZIBES for the first time this year and was undoubtedly a highlight of the Innovation zone. Relab is a one-stop big-data platform designed for property professionals, bringing together property data and providing information needed for market research, project feasibility studies and the early stages of due diligence. Relab aims to help users gain an early advantage in a rapidly changing market through specialist property data.
With materials in short supply, efficient, energy-saving, low-carbon and environmentally friendly building materials can be a winning asset in construction. At the expo, Prostone Consulting Limited and Metra Construction Panel jointly showcased Metra panels, made from New Zealand pine fibres left over from timber processing. These environmentally friendly, energy-efficient panels can increase on-site construction speed by 60%, allowing a 160-square-metre home to be completed in six weeks, while eliminating framing and linings can increase usable floor area to 7.5%.
NZCBIA president Frank Xu said: “Environmental changes, technological development and the COVID pandemic are subtly changing how we live. At the same time, changing urban density and the popularity of apartment living are having a major impact on building materials, design, development and many other areas. Through this event, we sincerely hope to equip New Zealand's building industry with more ideas for sustainable development, bring fresh energy to the traditional construction sector and provide better solutions.”
Alongside the themed exhibition zones, this year's event brought together exhibitors from architectural design, building materials, technology, finance and insurance, property management and many other fields, creating a diverse gathering of industry talent.
Special thanks to ROBAM Appliances and Aibang New Zealand for sponsoring the event's generous prize draw gifts.
This year, the pandemic has left the building industry facing both sharply rising raw material prices and material shortages. How to resolve these challenges was a key focus for industry participants at the expo.
The expo provided industry direction by examining developments in depth, identifying trends and addressing current crises and challenges. More than ten industry talks helped create a major gathering combining business connections with industry exchange.
Host organisation NZCBIA offered visitors further value through an all-day “Ask the Experts” programme at its stand. President Frank Xu, secretary-general Dylan Huang and several association experts provided detailed, face-to-face answers to difficult questions about land development, architectural design, project management and building materials. The response was enthusiastic, with a constant stream of enquiries and crowds at times surrounding the stand.
A major occasion on the industry calendar, the NZCBIA Annual Gala Dinner and Excellence Awards ceremony took place at Cordis Hotel on the evening of 6 August. The highly anticipated celebration brought together political and business leaders, opening with a welcome address from NZCBIA president Frank Xu.
Political leaders including Auckland Mayor Phil Goff and National Party Building and Construction spokesperson Tim van de Molen addressed the dinner. Their speeches demonstrated government support and encouragement for the building industry and strong recognition of the Chinese community's contribution to New Zealand society.
Diamond sponsors PlaceMakers, Barfoot & Thompson, KONE, Eurotech Design and Unicom NZ also delivered speeches, sharing new visions for their partnerships. The evening featured one highlight after another, with the atmosphere reaching a peak.
The 2021 NZCBIA Excellence Awards ceremony was also held during the dinner, recognising and celebrating outstanding industry achievements in development, design, construction and innovation. All awards underwent rigorous judging by authoritative industry professionals. The projects receiving Excellence Awards and Commendation Awards were:
# Closing remarks #
As an annual highlight for the building industry, this year's expo brought together academics, government representatives and businesses for wide-ranging exchanges and in-depth discussions about sustainable development and emerging trends. Strengthening supply chains, data connections and talent networks played a positive role in supporting the healthy development of the building industry in New Zealand and internationally. This year's international building expo undoubtedly gave New Zealand's building industry a much-needed boost.
NZIBES, the annual industry gathering, will return in 2022!
We hope NZIBES will bring industry professionals even more value and surprises in 2022.