DemolitionNews attended last week’s IDE seminar in Leeds and was suitably impressed.
But while the venue and timing followed a traditional and well-trodden path, the latest IDE Spring Seminar was quite a different kettle of demolition fish.
For one thing, it was standing-room only with delegates being shoe-horned into the auditorium; the exhibition area has grown from the usual half dozen or so familiar faces to be a truly representative display of products and services from across the demolition spectrum; and even the presentations – previously treading a fine line between technical and migraine – were somehow lighter and more engaging despite still conveying the necessary information.
It is clear that the Institute’s Council of Management has been working behind the scenes to make the IDE more inclusive, swelling membership and putting it on a similar footing to its fellow institutes, the IStructE and ICE. And it has paid off.
The Institute of Demolition Engineers’ own Demolition Engineer magazine will, of course, shortly be producing a full review of the event and its various presentations, some of which we have captured as audio or video for broadcast in the next few days.
But if you have ever attended an IDE event in the past and thought, perhaps, it was a little high-brow and technical for your tastes, think again. There is a new IDE in town, and its Autumn seminar in London is set to be a sell-out.
