Annually congress of the DA from the 24th until the 25th of October 2019 in Ulm
More than 230 association members came together in Ulm at the Danube
Information about every professional subject and the committees of the DA during the meeting of members – external speeches about specific topics, thought-provoking impulses about mega trends and the decision whether to go with your mind or your gut
The Deutscher Abbruchverband e.V. (German demolition association) organized its annually congress from the 24th until the 25th of October in Ulm one of the most powerful trade metropolises in the heart of Europe.
Opening evening
At the opening evening on the 24th of October the association members met for an easy come-together where the news of the industry could be discussed excitedly. The meeting took place at the rustic lion hall in the armoury of Ulm that regresses to the 15th century.
General assembly
In the morning of the 25th of October during the general assembly in the MARITIM hotel, the Board of Directors and the Managing Director Andreas Pocha provided information about the activities within the professional committees and about the work that the Board of Directors has been doing since the last report in Bremen.
Among other things Johannes Schlenter who is responsible for the Professional Committee Demolition Technology emphasizes that currently they have been working on a recommendation for action for the use of protection pads against the stray flight during demolition works. Concerning the Professional Committee Recycling and Waste Disposal Michael Pfeiffer reported that lobbying work has been practiced in an intensified way in the last year. For this purpose, they met State Secretary Pronold of the BMU, State Secretary Adler of the BMI, the Minister of Environment Heinen-Esser and Mr. Loscheider of the BMWI and discussed current environmental issues.
In this context the in January of 2019 by the DA and bvse established “limited company of quality assurance secondary building materials”, brief QUBA GmbH, has also been introduced. The aim of the QUBA is especially the creation of a national quality certification for mineral secondary building materials. Hereby a high quality of secondary building material shall be ensured and the acceptance towards them increased.
The person in charge of the Professional Committee Blasting Technology, Kai Wist, specified that lately they primarily dealt with the specialist conference “Demolition explosive –specialist conference about blasting of buildings” that was on the 27th and 28th of June in 2019. This specialist conference that took place for the first time has been a great success with more than 100 participants. Due to this conference is going to be an integral part of the calendar of events of the DA from now on. It is going to happen every 2 years. The work of the Professional Committee Pollutants is further on mostly determined by the long runner asbestos. Additionally, they gave an overview about the committees that work in cooperation with the DA and introduced guidelines and standards that they are working out together with the DA or that already have been published due to their collaboration.
Thomas Lück, the person in charge of the Professional Committee Education and Continuing Education that has been founded during the last annually congress in Bremen, informed about the fact that the committee determined its work priorities on its own. Some of these work priorities are for example the development of an own training course for foreman and the increase of appeal of the industry to raise staff recruitment. In addition to that the socio-political commission lately got together increasingly. Moreover, the Junior Working Group whose members are not allowed to be older than 40 years is currently thinking about producing an image film about the demolition industry.
The DA Service GmbH has already clearly expanded its programme of seminars in 2019, reported Viola Ridderbusch the Managing Director. A ZUMBau certified assessment place with training courses for an examined excavator operator and an examined longfront excavator operator has been added. Furthermore, the first-time implemented seminar for labour law aroused great interest. For 2020 even more new subjects are planned to be added to already well-established seminars. Right now, the annual plans for next year´s seminars are in progress and shall be finished until December.
In the end Johann Ettengruber in his function as the Chairman of the Board of Directors thanked his colleagues from the Board of Directors, every member that is involved in the committees, the two Managing Directors and every employee of the Head Office for their work. Only because of the cooperation of every person involved the association could grow pleasingly every year and gain a high impact.
Specialist lectures of the annually congress
During the lectures part of the annually congress Dr. Volker Busch held a very entertaining speech about the topic „Mind or gut – making the right decisions in the times of Big Data.“ By means of some examples that made his audience smile he clarified why artificial intelligence cannot beat human intelligence and how your gut feeling supports your mind when deciding about something. He showed possibilities and limits of our mind during the process of decision making, explained what intuition is and what is going on in our heads thereby.
The second speaker Dr. Eike Wenzel talked about „Digitalisation: How the man-machine relation is going to look like in the future“, and explained how mega trends and the digitalisation are going to turn markets, lifestyles, value creation models and work places upside down just like artificial intelligence. In his opinion we are at the beginning of an era of unknown productivity and industrial efficiency. Because of that the economical balances are going to change drastically which is why there needs to be a renewed evaluation of what human beings have done in the process of the digitalisation.
Accompanying programme
During the current annually congress the accompanying persons took part at a humorous and entertaining guided tour through the old town and the Münster of Ulm. Hereby they learned interesting facts about the past and present of the city that belongs to two federal states, visited the Münster of Ulm, the Schwörhaus, the historic town hall, the vineyard, the town wall, the beautiful fishermen´s and tanner´s quarter and the new centre. Because of the weather being unexpectedly warm and sunny at the end of October every person involved enjoyed the excursion.
Lastly congress evening between chrome and metal
At the end of the congress every member spent a sociable evening at the factory of vintage cars surrounded by nostalgic automobiles. Even the „Taylor of Ulm“ visited in person to tell everyone about his eventful life in an amusing and entertaining way. The party went on until late at night. Some people celebrated by being on the dancefloor and others had animated conversations about the demolition industry.
Chairman of the Board of Directors Johann Ettengruber seemed very delighted about the very successful event and the positive feedback he got from many members confirmed his feel.
The next annually congress of the DA in 2020 is going to take place from the 10th until the 11th of September 2020 in Prague!