International Armoured Vehicles Conference and Exhibition Commended by Government and Industry Alike

FARNBOROUGH, England, March 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

The International Armoured Vehicles (IAVs) show last week offered a focused learning experience to industry professionals, government officials and high-ranking military personnel. IAVs 2012 featured strategic briefings from distinguished speakers around the globe with the keynote speech given by Peter Luff MP, UK Minister of Defence Equipment, Support and Technology. The event also supported over 100 exhibitors where nine armoured vehicles were on display from leading OEMs such as Tawazun, General Dynamics, Oshkosh Defense and Streit Group.

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Major General Christopher Michael Deverell, Director of Materiel Strategy, DE&S, UK MoD, was impressed: "There are lots of conferences around but there is not another one on this sort of scale that is specifically on armoured vehicles, so it fills a useful niche."

1,800 attendees were welcomed from 47 countries over the course of the four day event, with eminent speakers sourced from nations such as the UK, US, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, India and Canada.

"The opportunity for industry to come together, meet ministers, meet those [in] more markets, who actually want to buy the equipment on offer, who come to discuss innovative solutions to common challenges is absolutely crucial," said Peter Luff MP.

Building on its traditional stance as a networking platform for the military and industry OEMs, this year's event partnerships with the London Chamber of Commerce and BDEC signified an increased level of participation from the SME community.

Referring to the combination of conference with the exhibition, Tony Rossi, Senior Product Manager Protection from RUAG, said this approach "draws the right people" for productive networking and creating meaningful business opportunities.

"If it were just a pure exhibition, you wouldn't get the key people, the key personnel here in the quality of numbers, which they are here," Rossi said.

The inaugural G6 Panel, comprised of six senior thought leaders from BAE Systems, Force Protection, Nexter, Oshkosh Defense, Thales and General Dynamics, debated the lessons learned from Iraq and Afghanistan as well as discussing the future development of armoured vehicles to 2020 and beyond.  

The Innovation Stage featured an update from General Dynamics' Colonel Peter Flach MBE on the Scout SV - which later won 'Best Vehicle Platform' at the International Armoured Vehicles 2012 Innovation Awards ceremony - along with a requirements update from Abu Dhabi-based Tawazun.

Full event details can be found on http://www.internationalarmouredvehicles.  Following the success of IAV 2012, next year's show has already been announced for February 2013.

About the event:

Comprised of an integrated conference and exhibition, the 11^th annual International Armoured Vehicles took place at its new home at impressive FIVE venue in Farnborough, the British Army's heartland.

The conference programme covered a range of topics including discussions on UORs, current challenges to the future of armoured vehicles, defeating the IED threat, through life support, future armouring capabilities and post-Afghanistan round tables.  

Contact: Kim Vigilia | IQPC, 2nd Floor, 129 Wilton Road, London SW1V 1JZ | Tel: +44-20-7368-9737

SOURCE Defence IQ