This year’s popular event for installers across heat, water, air, energy, kitchens and bathrooms was an absolute powerhouse of innovation and inspiration.
Spanning two humungous halls of the NEC across three jam-packed days, InstallerSHOW 2024 had 50% additional space in which it hosted over 600 exhibitors.
More than 20,000 visitors trod those halls to enjoy product launches, workshops, demonstrations, seminars, talks, panel debates and more.
We know some people love the freebies at these shows and the standard was high with exhibitors offering a variety of drinks, cakes, food, merch and goodie bags galore, alongside games such as darts, basketball hoops, hanging from a bar challenges and a fun version of the buzz wire game involving plumbing pipes.
No expo is complete without a smattering of guest appearances and visitors may have glimpsed (or taken a selfie with) familiar faces including World Champion darts player Cool Hand Luke Humphries, TV presenter and former pro darts player Bobby George, Dragons Den investor Debroah Meaden, TV personalities George Clarke, Rachel Riley, Kevin Mcloud, Philippa Forrester, Game of Thrones star and legendary strongman Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, aka ‘The Mountain’, plus Lord Callanan, former minister Chris Skidmore, and an impressive long list of industry experts.
Moving into renewables – opportunities for installers
Particularly interesting about this year’s show was the significant representation from the renewables industry. What was once a small section of the conference, now wound its way up and down every row, with net zero topics almost dominating the seminar agenda.
From the dedicated Heat Geek theatre, to the improved Elemental Arena, through the Solar Innovations zone, Climate Solutions Theatre, Housing Hub, Installer Plaza and the Get Connected area, barely a minute went by without renewable technologies and net zero issues being discussed.
The evolving nature of the renewable solutions industry was very evident with an increasingly pragmatic approach to delivery. This was seen in both the proliferation of solutions such as hybrids, high temperature heat pumps or space and money saving decarbonisation options as well as a much greater dialogue around the delivery transitional solutions while we work towards preferred longer-term options.
A record number of new industry partnerships or collaborations were announced as this maturing sector seeks to combine strengths to accelerate effective delivery.
There was also a big focus on helping installers who want to upskill and transition into renewable technologies such as heat pumps, batteries or solar PV. Several talks covered how installers can build successful businesses by moving from heating or electricals into renewables.
In addition, many businesses took the opportunity to use the event as a platform for launching new products and services, including new heat pumps from Grant, Navien and Panasonic, plus Huawei’s Fusionsolar system and the Flexi-Orb Certification Scheme.
Stay tuned for more InstallerSHOW updates
While we need a few days to go through our copious notes and email everyone we said we’d like to learn more about, please do stay tuned for more InstallerSHOW-inspired content on these pages.
We’d also love to get your views and pictures from the event. If you visited, please get in touch to let us know your highlights and key takeaways.
And if we didn’t get to speak to you and you have news to share with us, you’re interested in advertising, or you’d like to receive copies of our excellent print magazine, please get in touch. You can email news@renewableenergyinstaller.co.uk.
Image credit: A&D Publishing