2019 IMPERVIUS attracted 93 key players from 61 different companies and 24 countries. © EDANA

The 2019 IMPERVIUS, the first Bitumen Waterproofing Membranes Conference, which took place in Baveno, Italy on 5-6 June, attracted 93 key players from 61 different companies and 24 countries. Presentations focused on raw material development, processes, development in the MENA region, regulation and environmental opportunities.

The conference opened with a keynote speech on the “Future-Proofing construction in the age of change” given by Frank Hatzack, senior advisor at the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies.

Claudio Colombi, Market Manager Construction at Chomarat (France) and Marc Beuken, Managing Director at Alphamin (Belgium) commented on the origin and purpose of the conference: “Our Bituminous membrane Industry Suppliers Working Group decided with EDANA to organise a conference focused on the Bituminous membranes world. One of our missions is to serve that market. We worked hard to put a programme together that would trigger discussions and bring new ideas to the attendees. We are very happy with the response, 93 professionals of the industry had intense discussions and sessions those two days.”

“For EDANA and its members in this sector this conference is the natural extension of a 20 years-long history of unique cooperation in non-competitive areas such as sustainability and market perspectives. This is also a unique example of dialogue between proponents of all technologies for the bitumen waterproofing membranes, including but not exclusively nonwovens ones, in line with EDANA’s Outreach policy,” said Pierre Wiertz, General Manager of EDANA.

According to EDANA, there was a general sentiment of deep satisfaction among participants regarding the content of the conference and the networking. “There was a good presentation level with various and interesting topics from how to build the future, what are the main trends in the construction developments to the raw materials challenges including interesting technical aspects. It covered also the environmental aspects as circular economy – on what could be of interest to do in our industry. Also, interesting info about new self-adhesive membranes which push us to think about the bitumen membranes evolution. This conference allowed to improve exchanges between waterproofing producers and suppliers and to speak together about the challenging topics,”, Patrick Cogneau, Technical and R&D Director at Derbigum (Belgium).

Catharina Svenningsson, R&D Manager at Nordic Waterproofing Group (Sweden) said: “Finally! EDANA and its Bituminous membrane Industry Suppliers Working Group succeeded in gathering bitumen waterproofing lovers and presented a very interesting and ambitious program of lectures.”

“The insights and knowledge that we got in these two days were impressive. A great conference in a friendly environment in which we actually get to meet other professionals and share great ideas,” said Ines Antunes, R&D Manager at Polyglass (Italy).

Christine Robach, Bitumen Formulation R&D Manager at Soprema (France) commented: “Nice and pleasant event. We appreciated the diversity and quality of the presentations. Timing well managed with enough time for networking and individual discussions.”

“It was a pleasure to be here and to finally meet face-to-face many contacts. I learned a lot about the bitumen waterproofing membranes this will help me to expand my horizons in this  sector,” said Ouahiba Kherrat, Chemist at Sud Etanche (Algeria).

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