Canada’s largest exposition and conference for the design, construction and management of the built environment has been redesigned. Those attending the 2007 edition of IIDEX/NeoCon Canada – held in late September at the Direct Energy Centre – will enter from inspirational entrances and journey through a show floor completely different from previous years. New features at the Direct Energy Centre include learning labs dotted throughout the show, several restaurants and a champagne bar, plus reconfigured seminar rooms and keynote theatre.
Debuting this year as well is the IES Toronto Lighting Show, the largest of its kind in Canada. A partnership between IIDEX/NeoCon with the Toronto chapter of the Illuminating Engineering Society, it covers 5,000 square feet of show floor and features more than 50 manufacturers of interior, exterior and architectural lighting solutions.
Also new for 2007: ARIDO and IIDEX have developed a special partner program to ensure attendees have access to a wide cross section of new products and services. Major players taking part in the show include Allsteel, DIRTT, the Global Group, Inscape, InterfaceFLOR, Nienkmper, Shaw Contract, Tandus Canada and Teknion.
Keynotes speakers, coming from near and far, are particularly well chosen. Els Zijlstra of the Netherlands is the founder of Materia, which collects, records and analyzes information about the material needs of interior designers and architects; she’ll discuss the future of intelligent materials. Mexico’s Michel Rojkind is a rock band drummer turned architect; he’ll reflect on a personal journey that led him to found, in 2002, rojkind arquitectos (named by Architectural Record, just three years later, a top-10 design vanguard firm). Jean Sundin and Enrique Peiniger are the principals of the New York City-based Office for Visual Interaction, which makes inventive use of lighting as a design element; the duo demonstrate how dramatic lighting designs don’t have to be complicated. Joe Van Belleghem is managing partner of developments and consulting for Windmill Development Group; he’ll explain how environmental techniques (such as construction waste management and a natural systems approach to storm water) pay off economically. Finally, Peter Love is the chief energy conservation officer of the Ontario Power Authority’s Conservation Bureau; he’ll show what can be done to reduce facilities’ energy consumption.
IIDEX/NeoCon Canada runs at the Direct Energy Centre (formerly the National Trade Centre) Sept. 27 and 28.