ScaffEx26 showed what this industry can do. Now for the hard part.

Picking highlights from ScaffEx26 is genuinely difficult, because there were so many of them.

The sheer size and scale of the builds in the main exhibition hall was staggering, not least because they went up so quickly, and so safely, in a very short time frame. The conference programme was excellent and well rounded, the live demos out on the floor drew crowds across the two days and the awards are always a great way to end the event. The tribute to Wayne Connolly this year was exceptionally moving.

The numbers tell their own story. The expo was 35% larger than last year, with over 70 exhibitors, which is more than we have ever had. What struck me was not just the scale but the range. Alongside all that system scaffolding there were trucks and hoists, recruitment firms, design engineers, consultancies and software companies from all over the world.

We added a few things this year too. The NASC Village was a recreation of a small local village, complete with the Black Hat Arms pub and some carefully controlled ScaffEx branded beers! The Skills and Safety Zone was new this time and let us showcase strong practical safety guidance including a rescue from height and mask fitting.

The general sentiment over the two days both from walking round speaking to people and post-show feedback was really positive. The Village and membership areas were well used and there was a strong feeling that exhibitors had surpassed what they achieved last year. Seeing that many new and innovative products in one place at one time is why ScaffEx is so special.

The challenges have not gone away

It would be easy to leave it there but a great show does not change the two things that will define the coming year for most firms.

The first is skills. Recruiting and keeping talent will remain an issue for firms in every region of the UK and globally. In most areas there are more firms chasing a smaller pool of talent and we are potentially looking at a cliff edge at the other end as more older workers come off the tools to try their hand at less physically demanding roles, or to retire completely.

The second is the cost of doing business. Diesel costs are at an all-time high. That is bad enough in itself for scaffolding firms, who of course rely on transport to get materials and labour to and from site but there are secondary effects as fuel inflation knocks on to every other area and starts to bake inflation into the economy. The economy itself feels quite precarious at the moment, with a lot of uncertainty.

What needs to change

On skills, we need to get people to view scaffolding differently. We do a lot of work through our scaffoldingcareers.com initiative to get employers more engaged with young people in their area and to get schools engaged. Our Teacher Tours initiative is a good example of that in practice. Our Talent Packs are another, and an engaging way of getting the message out about the possibilities of scaffolding as a career.

On a more prosaic level, we also need more trainers and more training places. That is partly about funding, but it is also structural. CISRS has introduced its Train the Trainer programme specifically to address the shortfall without any loss of quality or experience. Interest has been excellent so far, and we look forward to it starting to have a real impact.

A word on the awards

Nobody on the NASC or CISRS teams sees the entries for the Scaffolding Excellence Awards. They are judged by an independent panel who are pretty ruthless in their determination that we have no involvement in the judging at all. It is the right way to run things and it is different from the old days when the distinction was not so clean. It is more professional and it adds gravitas.

So all I can tell you is what the judges said and what I saw on the shortlists, which was of an extraordinarily high standard. The judges confirmed that as well as having more entries than ever before, something like 40% up on last year, the calibre of those entries was at a new level.

Long may that continue. It is a great showcase and celebration of the brilliant people, projects and products across our industry.

And next year

We have plenty of plans, though it is a bit early to reveal too much. We want to keep growing and evolving. One thing that will not change for a while at least is the venue: we are committed to Manchester Central for the next three years, so we'll see you back there in September 2027!