With a handfull of mega demos and action seminars, World of Concrete has left no trump unturned. The annual show will be held side by side with World of Masonry Feb. 27-March 2 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, but seminars will begin Feb. 26.
World of Masonry was formerly known as the Masonry Pavilion within World of Concrete.
The mega demos are live, full-scale demonstrations of actual jobsite activities for concrete and masonry that let the audience see the latest construction equipment, materials and techniques in action. Topics include wet and dry shotcreting, concrete and grout pumping, placing roller-compacted concrete pavement, using a continuous mixer for pavement repair, new formwork and slipforming curbs and gutters.
The action seminars will be offered from 8 to 11 a.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Tuesday?s seminar, titled "Designing, Mixing and Using Flowable Fill," will let viewers watch instructors design, batch, mix and place flowable fill and learn to test both freshly mixed and hardened fill.
On Wednesday, "Retrofitting Masonry for Seismic Loading" will combine lectures, slides and live demonstrations to teach attendees how to evaluate and retrofit unreinforced masonry buildings.
"How to Stamp Concrete," on Thursday, offers a chance to learn how to create decorative flatwork using colors, patterns and textures.
World of Concrete also will offer special presentations, such as a test track, where participants can operate large equipment in jobsite conditions. Ready-mix trucks, skid-steer loaders and rough-terrain forklifts are some of the equipment available.
Roundtable discussions
The show will feature two new roundtable discussions: the Producer Executives? Roundtable and the Masonry Executives? Roundtable. In the Producer Executives? Roundtable (Tuesday, Feb. 27, 8-11 a.m.), concrete producers of all sizes and types will share their problems and solutions.
In the Masonry Executives? Roundtable (Monday, Feb. 26, 8-11 a.m.), as part of World of Masonry, industry leaders will discuss the most pressing issues for masonry producers and contractors, including changes in materials, design and technology.
Seminar tracks
The regular seminar program includes 90 seminars broken down into 10 tracks: basics, residential, decorative, repair, safety, floors, masonry, concrete production, management and specialty topics.
The basics track focuses on concrete basics and culminates with a session on "High Performance Concrete with Specialty Admixtures."
The residential track includes "Residential Waterproofing," "Residential Wall Construction" and "Repairing Residential Walls."
The decorative track includes "Decorative Walls: Care and Feeding of Architectural Form Liners" and "Decorative Walls: Tilt-up Shapes and Finishes."
The repair track includes "Crack Injection," "Concrete Repair Materials," "Basics of Concrete Repair" and "How to Strengthen Concrete and Masonry Structures with Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composite Systems."
The safety track includes "Practical Construction Risk Management," "Concrete Pump Safety" and "How to Achieve Team-Based Safety and Select Personal Protective Equipment."
The floors track includes "Joints in Concrete," "Getting the Most from Your Power Trowel" and "Floor Flatness: Basics of F-Numbers."
"Troubleshooting Masonry" and "Repair of Design and Construction Problems in Young Masonry Structures" forms the masonry track.
The concrete production track includes "Concrete Recycling: Methods and Materials for Zero-Waste," "How to Dispatch Concrete, Parts I and II," "How to Make Money Using Mobile Continuous Mixers," "Concrete Mix Design, Part I: Evaluation of Mixtures; Part II: Adjusting with Aggregates and Admixtures; and Part III: Air Entrained Concrete" and "So You?ve Gotta Buy a Concrete Truck."
Specialty topics include "Avoiding Structural Failures," "Troubleshooting Concrete Cracks" and "Supervising Slipform Paving Jobs."
The management track includes "Increasing Jobsite Productivity," "Concrete Answers to Ten Legal Problems," "How to Build a Construction Company That Always Makes a Profit," "Estimating Strategies" and "People Management in Construction."
