Cubrecol, a benchmark in the industry

by Santiago Jaramillo H.

"Better applications, better customers", under this slogan Medellín, industrial capital of Colombia, will host this year the sixth edition of Cubrecol. As a great novelty, the event will have its headquarters in 2009 at the Plaza Mayor Convention and Exhibition Center, the fairground par excellence of this metropolis, where both the commercial exhibition, the academic program and the business roundtable will be developed.

One of the strengths that Cubrecol will have this year will be precisely the academic program, which seeks to cover in the best way the demands of the attendees by segmenting its programming into four specific thematic axes: Industrial Applications, Automotive Coatings & Repainting, Corrosion & Metals and Architectural Applications.

"The world of paints and coatings is very wide, there is a wide variety of applications that require different systems, which need different treatments, pretreatments and curing systems depending on the area in which it is applied and on the material in which it is used, so we decided to divide into four Thematic Units Cubrecol, each of them corresponds to a room and a day, we will have two classrooms each of the two days," said Vanesa Restrepo, deputy editor of the magazine INPRA LATINA and responsible for the academic component for this version.

Restrepo also said that "the first show, on Thursday, September 17, corresponds to industrial applications, there we will be accompanied by several formulation companies and what we are going to do is address the part of applications of the latest technology such as polysiloxane finishes or coatings for tank bottoms; we are also going to work on the part of powder paints that is gaining more and more ground within the Andean region, especially in Colombia."

"Room two corresponds to automotive coatings & repainting. In the repainting part is the Cesvi Colombia that will work the quality control part within the repainting workshops, application equipment and security measures," said Restrepo, who also indicated that "in the other part of the day star will be with us, which will develop the part of corrosion and water-based architectural paints, one of the most widely used products in the Colombian market."

Already in what refers to the third axis, corrosion and metals, the representative of Cubrecol said that "we have the support of Ascor and we will deal with innovation issues such as corrosion in particular, a topic that has never been worked on before in Cubrecol and that is a phenomenon that is gaining more and more space within the industry. In the same way, we will work on the panorama of corrosion in Colombia that comes from an investigation made by the University of Antioquia, headed by Dr. Félix Echavarría, which allows us to know which are the areas most prone to corrosion according to their geographical location, the proximity of the sea, the climatic conditions, etc. Also in this axis we will work on the treatments and curing for metal surfaces according to the different techniques that exist".

In the last axis, which was called architectural applications, as Vanesa Restrepo said, "there will be room for two elements, one architectural applications as such, both for internal and external environments, and paints for wood, and in the afternoon we will have a special session with road paints: demarcation and non-slip materials that must be used in these applications".

Extensive experience and quality
Another of the points in which the organization of Cubrecol wants to excel this year is in the subject of the speakers, so for the development of the academic component the organization of the event made important inter-institutional agreements with recognized entities such as the Seine, the University of Antioquia, Ascor, Cesvi and Star, which will contribute their extensive knowledge and experience to the strengthening of the industry.

"The speakers that we are going to have this year, as has happened in the previous versions, are industry professionals who belong to the most important companies in the country and who live day by day the problems of corrosion or integrity problems within their work. They are people who understand the industry perfectly and have relied on the research entities and the different universities to know and do research in this regard, so they have a little more advanced knowledge that in Cubrecol we try to transmit to the applicators of the Andean region, "said Restrepo.

In the same way, the journalist and representative of Cubrecol stressed that the call so far has been very successful and has had great receptivity within the general public.

"We have obtained a very good response, already educational entities have confirmed the presence of their students, also people from the Andean region will be accompanying us, even people from areas such as Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean have expressed their desire to go to Cubrecol, so I consider that the potential is quite good for the contest that will be held in Medellín, city in which most of the painting industry of Colombia is concentrated, and where there is an additional tourist attraction that makes the event a little more dynamic, then I think it is a perfect scenario for Cubrecol 2009 to be a success, "pondered our guest.

Commercial sample
As is tradition, Cubrecol will gather in its commercial exhibition, which can be visited free of charge by all attendees, the most representative companies of the paints and coatings sector in the Andean region, which will be a guarantee garment for a high flow of visitors to the paisa fairgrounds.

"There are two very important factors for people to be encouraged to attend Cubrecol 2009, the first is the academic component that this year is very well structured and the other is the theme of the commercial exhibition, which in this edition will have a very well defined target, very precise, and perfectly directed for what our audience requires", said Fabio Giraldo, show manager of Cubrecol.

The Show Manager of the event also considered that "Cubrecol made in 2009 important alliances with Cotelco and Avianca, and some other entities, which will allow attendees to enjoy great economic benefits in terms of their participation, as is the case of striking hotel, air and tourist packages".

Giraldo also exalted that "another great novelty that the sixth edition of Cubrecol will have will be the business roundtable, which for all exhibitors will be an added value that will generate a high expectation of closing important commercial agreements during the two days that the event will be in Medellín".

On the other hand, and when asked about the importance of holding the event in the capital of Antioquia, the representative of Cubrecol said that "we bet again on Medellín because apart from having a great fair infrastructure, now the city has an excellent air offer that it did not have before. The issue that a person to be able to get to Medellín had to make a stopover in Bogotá before was very expensive and unremarkable, but now there are airline routes that come from North, Central and South America without any problem and at low cost, there is TAC, LAM, Copa, Aerorepública, Avianca and others, but undoubtedly the preponderant factor is that we are taking an event to a city that is purely industrial and where a good part of Colombia's painting sector is brought together," Giraldo said.

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The city of Medellin
Medellín, capital of the department of Antioquia, is located in northwestern Colombia. It has a population close to two million six hundred thousand inhabitants, which makes it the second most populous city in Colombia, only surpassed by Bogotá. For its part, the metropolitan area of the city, made up of nine other municipalities, has a population of almost four million inhabitants, this being the second urban agglomeration in the country. In addition, Medellín or the "city of eternal spring" as it is also called, is known for its industrial tradition that has kept it for many years at the forefront of the Colombian economy.

In the same way, Medellín stands out as one of the main cultural and tourist centers of Colombia. It is also home to important festivals with extensive experience and recognition both locally, nationally and internationally. Likewise, the academic and scientific activity stands out, since some of the most important Colombian universities have their headquarters in the city.