At the Natural Stone Show and Hard Surfaces 2019...

• Stone from the UK and around the world
• Latest developments in machinery, tools and consumables with working demonstrations
• the Natural Stone Show co-locates with Hard Surfaces for the first time
• More than 50 seminar sessions exploring stone and hard surfaces
• Architect & Designer Day (sponsored by Johnston Quarry Group) with associated CPD seminars hosted by international stone expert Vince Marazita
• Treniq VIP buyers programme visits
• Historic England Conservation Area supported by the Institute of Historic Building Conservation (IHBC), the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) and the English Stone Forum + IHBC CPD-accredited seminars
• Hard Surfaces seminar programme chaired by journalist and blogger Joe Simpson
• MaterialDistrict featuring 136 material innovations + Innovation Meets Design seminar by Material District founder and creative director Els Zijlstra
• Stone Federation Village at the heart of the Show with CPD-accredited ‘silent seminars’ and Federation AGM
• Stone Award and Tile Award Galleries

Get your ticket for the shows at bit.ly/StoneShow2019

Looking for stone to set you apart from your rivals? Need to improve your productivity with the latest machinery? Want to see if there are better tools and consumables you could be using? Like to stay up to date with the industry you work in by networking? Then come along to the Natural Stone Show / Hard Surfaces exhibitions in London at ExCeL from 30 April to 2 May.

If you have some clients you want to impress you might also like to invite them along for an enlightening day out when they can get a better understanding of your work and perhaps choose the materials they will use on their next project.

The natural stone market in the UK is now more than five-and-half times the size it was when the first Natural Stone Show was held in 1995 – 563% in 2017, according to the tax authority HMRC. That’s way above inflation, which the Office for National Statistics says was 82.74% in that period.

But that is not the whole story, because a plethora of new sheet materials have augmented the stone processing industry’s repertoire and helped it take even more market share from other sectors, particularly in interiors and especially since the turn of the millennium.

It is in recognition of the growing product portfolio of the stone industry that the Natural Stone Show this time, for the first time, co-locates with the new Hard Surfaces exhibition, where you will be able to see examples of the quartz, sintered stone and porcelain materials that have grown to become such a significant element of the products supplied by stone processors.

And if you want to know what’s coming next, there is a feature in the show curated by MaterialDistrict, probably the World’s leading match-making platform for innovative materials. It will display 135 surfaces, some of which could be the next big thing for the stone industry.

If you would like to know more about the developments that have led to this explosion of new materials, the lecture programme associated with the exhibitions includes a day devoted to them, chaired by journalist, blogger and self-confessed tile addict Joe Simpson.

If the new generation products don’t float your boat, don’t despair. The lecture programme also includes a day on the architectural use of stone and a day on the use of stone in conservation – and conservation has its own dedicated area of the Stone Show, with experts from Historic England, the Institute of Historic Building Conservation, SPAB (the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings) and the English Stone Forum on hand to answer questions from visitors.

There will be more about the selection and use of natural stone on the stand of Stone Federation Great Britain, which, along with 25 of its members, has a ‘Stone Village’ as a central feature of the Natural Stone Show. The Federation is holding a series of CPD-accredited ‘silent’ lectures on its stand (given through headphones to cut out the background noise of the exhibition).

As well as the stone itself, the exhibition includes the machinery, tools and consumables that have played such a significant part in the growth of the stone industry by making it possible and affordable to fashion stone like never before.

The exponential growth of computer processing power and speed has revolutionised the way the industry works, although that has only been made possible by the no less significant development of diamond tooling, which has not only become appreciably more affordable but has also produced compound economies by working faster and producing better finishes, so less handwork is necessary.

Developments that have taken place in processing capability have even been instrumental in the development of the latest generation surfaces because without the machinery and tools available today, processing ultradense materials and sheet ceramics would be out of the question.

You can see who is exhibiting at the shows on their respective websites.