The Alexandria, Va.-based National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association board has approved pursuit of a single, broad education-based meeting, potentially under the banner of “World of Aggregates Forum and Expo.” Earmarked for each of the two winter seasons between ConExpo/Con/Agg Show, which is staged every three years in Las Vegas, World of Aggregates would combine an equipment exposition with a host of established NSSGA events, including Plant Operators, Automation, Marketing & Technical, Industry Workforce and Underground Mine Safety conferences; Environmental, Safety & Health, Transportation & Distribution, and Water Policy forums; and Legal Symposium. Association business and government affairs meetings would remain separate.

The World of Aggregates proposal follows a move by NSSGA and Con/Agg brand co-owner, the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, to relinquish their roles in ConExpo-Con/Agg Show management after 2005. The associations now license the use of the Con/Agg banner to Milwaukee-based Association of Equipment Manufacturers, which owns ConExpo and is the sole ConExpo-Con/Agg manager. An agreement with AEM enables NSSGA and NRMCA to organize exposition-type events at intervals no closer than six months within ConExpo-Con/Agg, the next staging of which is March 11-15, 2008. The inaugural World of Aggregates is planned for February 2009. NSSGA Chairman Donald James (Vulcan Materials) is naming a task force for the event.