From 2010 to 2018, these best practice exchanges took place mainly in the form of biennial physical meetings, with newsletters published the intervening periods to maintain communications and continuity of knowledge sharing. As the pictures below show, the attendance at these meetings has grown steadily, confirming the success of GAIN as a forum for exchanging industry best practices at a global level.
Unfortunately the COVID-pandemic intervened in 2020, and it was not until 2023 that physical GAIN meetings could be resumed, which are now continuing annually.
2010: The first GAIN meeting in Brussels, hosted by AE-UEPG, comprised only five regions, Australia, Brazil, Colombia, USA and Europe.
2014: The third GAIN meeting took place in Brussels, again hosted by AE-UEPG, and the membership continued to consolidate.
2012: By the second meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina, hosted by NSSGA, the enthusiastic participation grew to include Canada, China and New Zealand.
2016: The fourth GAIN Meeting was hosted by ASPASA in Cape Town, the first meeting on the African Continent.
2018: The Fifth GAIN Meeting in Barcelona, hosted by the Spanish Association FdA and the Catalan Association Gremi d’Arids, made a new record by including participation from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Japan, Latin America, New Zealand, South Africa, USA and Europe.
2023: The sixth GAIN Meeting, the first post-pandemic, took place in Queenstown in July 2023, kindly hosted by AQA, New Zealand. Nine GAIN regions attended namely China, South Korea, Malaysia, Europe, United States, Canada, Colombia, Argentina and New Zealand.
2024: The seventh GAIN Meeting was hosted in Córdoba, Argentina, by CEMINCOR, CAEM, Cámara de la Piedra and Federación de la Piedra. Present were Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile and Costa Rica (the latter two for the first time) from Latin America. Also present were Canada and the US, with Aggregates Europe representing its 30 member countries. The very significant Asian presence included China, South Korea and Malaysia. For Oceania, New Zealand was also present. There were recorded inputs from India, Australia and South Africa.
The next physical GAIN Meeting, hosted by the Spanish Federation (FdA) is scheduled to take place in Córdoba, Spain, in October 2025.
The 2026 GAIN is planned to be hosted by CAA, the China Aggregates Association. For more details on both, please contact jimobriencsr@gmail.com.