IPHA Annual Conference 2025

IPHA Annual Conference 2025

The 29th annual conference of the International Prestressed Hollowcore Association (IPHA) took place at the Sofitel Warsaw Victoria hotel in Poland, from 22nd – 25th May.

IPHA is a diverse and global organization, which has been at the heart of the prestressed hollowcore industry since 1969. This year marked a special occasion as it was the first time IPHA’s Annual Conference was held in Poland. Poland’s largest precast and hollowcore producer, Pekabex, hosted the event.

The annual conference presents an opportunity for members to come together from around the world and provides a platform for a programme of activities around a chosen topic. These include factory and site visits, keynote speakers from inside and outside the industry, discussion and debate, within a friendly and collaborative atmosphere.

Given it was IPHA’s inaugural visit to Poland, the conference theme was: “Hollowcore in Poland – What Can We Learn?”. As a global organization, IPHA is always in pursuit of new insights and expertise. When visiting a new country, IPHA is eager to discover and understand how precast and hollowcore technology have evolved in that market – examining new production methods, research, and innovations.

In attendance at the conference were 74 delegates and 16 partners from 20 different countries. This included 28 representatives from full member companies, and 42 from associate member companies, 3 invited guests, plus 1 honorary member.

Delegates were welcomed to the conference with a dinner on Thursday evening in the Opera Room at Sofitel Warsaw Victoria.

Friday 23rd May

Friday’s itinerary began with a welcome given by Executive Director, Kjell-Ole Gjestemoen, who made special mention of the new members joining the organization. IPHA President, Seamus McKeague, also welcomed the delegates, and recounted his first IPHA conference as a new member with Creagh Concrete. He emphasized how IPHA had created an anchor point for him and his business, to aim higher and improve, thanks to the presence of so many expert hollowcore professionals.

Following the welcome speeches, delegates heard from representatives of the host company Pekabex, with Szymon Wojciechowski (Head of R&D) and Bartosz Dąbrowski (Sales Director) sharing a detailed presentation on hollowcore in Poland. This started with a review of the history of hollowcore and prefabrication, before moving onto the foundation of Pekabex in 1972, and the development of the precast concrete market, explaining the focus of commercial, educational and industrial buildings. They also highlighted the importance of research and development to the company’s operations, including the monitoring of prestress strand slippage, the introduction of cameras and lasers for automatic slab quality monitoring, and the reduction of cement content for more sustainable alternatives.

Delegates then boarded a bus for Mszczonów, where they we given a guided tour of one of Pekabex’s manufacturing facilities for hollowcore slabs. This well-organised tour included the production hall and stockyard, explaining the manufacturing processes, different machinery used, and quality control procedures.

Friday ended with the host dinner, held in the Restaurant Ale Gloria in central Warsaw, where a speech was given by Marta Sattlberger, Chief Operating Officer at Pekabex, welcoming our international delegates to Poland.

Saturday 24th May

The conference commenced on Saturday with a welcome from Kjell-Ole Gjestemoen. This was followed by an update on IPHA Vision 2030 from Thomas Goosey, including planned improvements to the IPHA website, as well as the introduction of an event app, used for the first time during the Annual Conference.

After this, the delegates heard from the first keynote speaker, Józef M. Kostrzewski, Director of the Polish Concrete Producers Association, who gave an insight into the organization’s activities, including research and overseas collaboration.

Next up was Piotr Dauksza, CEO of H+H, whose presentation “Polish Construction Market today and tomorrow’s outlook” gave the delegates a detailed breakdown of the macroeconomic environment and an overview of the Polish construction market. Through detailed data, he showed that the overall outlook is positive. Following him was Mateusz Moczko, Investment Manager at Betard, who gave a brief overview of the company’s manufacturing capabilities, techniques and completed projects.

Each year, the event’s sponsors are also given the opportunity to present, with the first slot going to Pascal van Wijk, Sales Manager for Progress Software Development. PSD are also new members of IPHA, and part of the Progress Group alongside sister company Echo Precast Engineering. For this reason, Pascal was able to cover an introduction to PSD, and explain their part in the wider hollowcore offering alongside Echo Precast Engineering.

The next keynote speaker was Professor Wit Derkowski, Cracow University of Technology and Linnaeus University Sweden, with “Research on HC Floors: Overcoming Challenges and Tackling Problems”. Wit introduced a review of hollowcore floors as a product, convincingly showing that any perceived problems can also be turned into opportunities for improvement. He went on to explain how research and development play a central part in moving the industry forward and overcoming these challenges, with the HOLCOLODIS project, conducted with IPHA support and funding, a perfect example of collaboration between industry and academia.

The final keynote speaker was Sergio Tortelli, Product Director for Heidelberg Materials, who gave an eye-opening presentation titled “Decarbonization of the building materials with focus on cement and concrete”. Sergio introduced the audience to evoZero®, the world’s first net zero carbon captured cement. He went on to explain how this had been planned over 20 years, and the incredible infrastructure behind the project. He also showed that when evoZero® is combined with hollowcore slabs, it was possible to make an already sustainable option even more competitive.

The second sponsor presentation followed from Peikko, with CEO and IPHA board member Topi Paananen demonstrating the huge number of successful projects completed around the world using DELTABEAM® in combination with hollowcore slabs. He also reiterated the benefits of slim floor structures, ease and speed of installation. The final sponsor presentation was given by Markus Müller, Market Development Manager at Sika, who explained how the company is using new technologies to enable sustainable construction around the world, including in the reduction of clinker cement use.

At every annual conference, new members are also given the opportunity to make a short introductory presentation. This year, IPHA welcomed Kanazoe Group, with a presentation given by CEO Djibril Kanazoe. Djibril played a video showcasing the company’s construction of thousands of prefabricated school buildings in Burkina Faso and surrounding countries, where hollowcore slabs are used as wall panels. From Italy, Leonardo Casali introduced Manini Prefabbricati, explaining their activities as broken down into 4 business units, from design, to production, construction and servicing of buildings. He also ran through their many awards and introduced their academy of seismic engineering.

Next on the agenda was a workshop, where the delegates split into small groups and addressed the main topic of the conference – “Hollowcore in Poland – what did we learn?”. The fairly unanimous view of all groups was that while technology and innovation provided a strong basis for the Polish hollowcore market, their was also room for growth, particularly in relation to the residential sector, as precast had largely only been accepted in industrial, commercial and educational settings up to now.

The last presentations of the day came from the entrants for the annual Terry Treanor Award. Terry Treanor was chairman of IPHA from its inauguration in 1994, until he sadly died, unexpectedly, in 2003. It was in his honour and memory that the award was devised, with the first one awarded at the annual conference in Prague, 2005. The entrants were Combilift, Elematic, Peikko and Hollow Core Concrete Pty Ltd.

To close the conference, the board of IPHA held the General Assembly, here it was announced that IPHA President Seamus McKeague would step down, following 15 years of fantastic service to the association. Succeeding him will be Marco Pecetti, who has served on the board of IPHA with distinction for many years. It was also announced that Kevin McKeague, General Manager of Creagh Concrete, would be elected to the board to replace Henril Holm Pederson, following the news that Heidelberg Materials have left the association. Updates were given by the marketing and technical committees, including announcements about the next Technical Seminar, to be held in Kraków in October 2025.

It was also announced by Kjell-Ole Gjestemoen that the 2026 annual conference would be held in Rome, in collaboration with the BIBM Congress.

The Annual Conference ended in style with the IPHA Dinner in the Opera Room at Sofitel Victoria Warsaw. Hollow Core Concrete Pty. Ltd. were announced as worthy winners of the 2025 Terry Treanor Award for their entry – “Installation of Hollow Core Planks – Enhanced Safety to Riggers”. Guests were also entertained thanks to Maksymilian Mrozowski, who gave an amusing insight into growing up in Poland, the country’s culture, and how it has changed over the years.

Seamus McKeague was given a standing ovation and, along with his wife Una, accepted gifts from IPHA. Seamus has had a profound impact in his role as President over the last 15 years, and he spoke with great passion about the influence of IPHA on his own business over this time. He handed over to incoming President Pecetti Marco, who, watched by the IPHA family, as well as his own, shared a fantastic speech reflecting on Seamus’ leadership, and expressed his desire to continue this, leading IPHA into the future as an open, collaborative association that can help to drive the international hollowcore industry forward.