Dear brickmakers, dear colleagues,
ciation of Clay Brick and Roof Tiles producers TBE it is my great honour to invite brickmakers from all European countries to the Annual General Assembly of TBE in Vienna.
It is my special concern to motivate producers from all parts of Europe to actively participate in the conference to inform them about the successful lobbying work being done in our European associations and to discuss with them where we still need to improve our activities. In advancement of the conference concept of the last years – and especially the successful conference 2009 in Munich – we will invite attractive guest speakers both from “the architectural scene” and from politics – this year we are honoured to have as our guest MEP Paul Rübig, who is one of our most important allies in the European Parliament. We will organize simultaneous translation in German and English and we will organize a very attractive evening event at the “Leopoldmuseum” in Vienna, including short guided visits of this famous Klimt and Schiele museum and some very spectacular Viennese music.
The conference will have sustainability as general motto and part of our work program will be the development of a sustainable communication concept for our industry for the coming years. In course of the conference we will also invite you to participate in a guided city walk in the centre of Vienna. This oldest part of Vienna shows very clearly what sustainability means in context with fired clay products. All the buildings in the centre of Vienna were built with clay bricks and roof tiles and many of them are several hundreds of years old. Therefore clay bricks and roof tiles are an essential part of the cultural heritage of Vienna and - besides all ongoing discussions about energy performance and environmental aspects of construction materials – this should never be forgotten in the public discussion. As this is true not only for Vienna but for all European cities we should transport this message to politicians wherever we can. The TBE conference 2010 will hopefully provide you with some very good arguments in this discussion.
The challenges of implementing the principles of sustainable production in the brick and roof tiles industry can only be mastered by brickmakers in close cooperation with machinery producers and raw material suppliers. I have therefore invited all major suppliers to also participate and update us on their most recent innovations.
I hope that the foreseen program is convincing for many of you and I would really be pleased if we could reach a new record in number of participants!
Looking forward to seeing you all in Vienna on 21st and 22nd October I am
