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Crowds at Construct

Boasting 23,000 visitors, 1,050 exhibitors and 450 speakers, Construct
Canada remains Canada’s largest show for the construction industry.

Boasting 23,000 visitors, 1,050 exhibitors and 450 speakers, Construct Canada remains Canada’s largest show for the construction industry. Official attendance figures for the 2011 version, held Nov. 30 to Dec. 2 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, were not in at press time, but judging from the crowds in the aisles they were better than last year. The attitude among exhibitors was upbeat; the inevitable grumblers were muted and reduced to complaining about the numbers of students, while most were pleased and some downright ecstatic. “This has been a great show for us,” Ron Goldenberg of NuView Windows gushed. “We have seen so many important people here. I just know we will pick up a ton of business.”

Construct Canada offers opportunities to glass industry professionals both as attendees and exhibitors. If you walk the floor, you have a chance to meet dozens of potential suppliers and to visit numerous potential clients. If you exhibit, you get a chance to talk directly to the people who can specify your product in new construction.

With such a diverse spread of exhibitors on the floor – everything from property management firms to concrete suppliers to building security providers to power tool distributors – it is possible to wonder if a glazing or fenestration company is going to benefit from the crowds of attendees walking by the booth. It is the old debate of quality versus quantity. Certainly numerous architects, contractors, property managers and building specifiers will see your booth, but how many of them are shopping for your product? They could just as easily be there only to look at building management software. Construct has done a fair job of trying to lump exhibitors from similar sub-sectors together in the same areas, but this risks attracting the complaint from exhibitors that they are too close to their competitors. One pities the poor trade show organizer in these demanding times.  Such concerns aside, many people in the construction industry obviously find an opportunity to browse a wide variety of products and services attractive.

Perhaps Construct Canada is a show for fenestration and glass companies seeking to raise their profiles and broaden their reaches into new markets, while Win-door remains the destination for reinforcing existing relationships and closing deals.

This year’s Construct Canada saw an explosion of solar power exhibitors, with at least a dozen evident to a casual count. Anyone with the capability to provide glass for solar panels would be able to make some important connections. A conversation at the Gemco booth revealed just how important the glass is in a solar panel. Apparently, if even a small corner of the glazing changes in any characteristic, the whole panel must be recertified before it can be used. It seems doubtful that solar panel builders would be able to find glass providers capable of these levels of quality and repeatability just anywhere.