As many of you know, we have confirmed the dates and space for the GBM this year and as usual, would like to offer the first opportunity and space allocation to last year’s participants, before we go public.  I am happy to say that we have secured the Whistler Conference Centre for September 6th to 8th, 2012.

We are very pleased to be partnering once again with the Western Red Cedar Lumber and Export Associations (WRCLA/EA) on the event.  This is a great opportunity to not only meet with important international buyers and decision makers, but also re-connect with your peers in the industry.

Registered Exhibitors will also have full access to the BC Wood & WRCLA Association programs scheduled for Thursday the 6th.

In case you have not participated in the past GBM’s, we put together a few short videos of the event last year:

2011 Global Buyers Mission Video: http://youtu.be/B0fS5puvTQA
2011 Living and Building with Wood Video: http://youtu.be/724QpufhNLQ
2011 Exhibitor testimonials: http://youtu.be/jft5iB9EEGI
2011 Buyer Testimonials: http://youtu.be/F5_iaRF-6mc
BC Wood YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/BCWoodAssociation

If you are a past exhibitor and want to guarantee your space for the 2012 GBM, please let us know so we can forward you the new “on-line registration link”, where you can select your number 1, 2 & 3 choices for space.  As you know, booth space selection is based on a first come-first served basis.

If you have NOT participated in the GBM but would like to be put on the invitation list, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

I look forward to seeing you all on the Mountain this year!

Randi Walker
Director, Marketing & Communications
Tel: 604-882-7100
Toll Free: 1-877-4 BCWOOD
Email: gbm@bcwood.com

A recent wood products conference in Whistler highlighted something that many people already know — that 2011 has been a watershed year for B.C.’s softwood lumber industry.

At Global Buyers Mission, a three day value-added wood sector marketplace, B.C.’s Jobs, Tourism & Innovation Minister Pat Bell said China has for the first time, surpassed the U.S. as top export market for Canada’s softwood lumber.

For the past five years, B.C. and the provincial forest sector, with the support of the Canadian government, have been actively marketing B.C. wood products to China. And it’s paid off: from January to May, B.C. exported 2.8 million cubic metres to China — more than double last year’s volume. Trade missions, demo buildings, technology transfer and conferences like these, are among projects funded to expand China’s interest in the forestry industry.

Hosted by the non-profit B.C. Wood, at the Whistler Conference Centre, Global Buyers Mission invited qualified buyers at more than 75 companies from Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, India and Malaysia and brought them together with a cross-section of B.C. businesses who work in the value-added sector.

Qing Deng, of Shanghai Green Garden Wood Co, China’s biggest buyer of B.C.’s red cedar, yellow cedar and Douglas fir, was one of many businesses whose hunger for wood could collectively be called voracious.

Speaking through a translator, Deng, whose company imports $5 million yearly, says he only buys from Canada, because this is the only place in the world where this high quality wood is available.

Although the conference is held for the value-added sector, (marketers of log homes, cedar shingles, hardwood flooring, texture-surfaced doors, recycled cedar timber frame, laminated beams etc) it’s the ‘grey area’ exporters who are boosting trade stats selling to China.

Source: Coast Reporter – September 21, 2011

For the sixth year in a row, Whistler again hosted a B.C. wood industry conference last week — but a changing demographic in attendees offered an opportunity for resort officials to connect with international delegates interested in the resort.

The 2011 Global Buyers Mission (GBM), organized by the B.C. Wood Specialties Group, took place at the Whistler Conference Centre last Thursday through Saturday (Sept. 8 to 10). The event saw about 700 attendees including buyers from around the world and wood companies from across B.C.

According to organizers, about 70 per cent of buyers, attendees and sellers were participating in the conference for the first time. With the recent decline of American markets for B.C. wood, more buyers came from Asian markets such as China and Korea.

Those are areas Whistler has been trying to reach from a tourism standpoint, and at least one municipal official had the chance to promote the resort to a group of conference attendees.

Mike Vance, RMOW general manager of policy and program development, was asked to speak at the conference on behalf of the Council of Forest Industries, according to information provided by the municipal communications department.

The delegation of China-based land developers was interested to learn if they can build a resort like Whistler and use some of the municipality’s best practices as a model, a spokesperson said. Vance’s presentation focused on Whistler’s success as a resort, including its evolution, leading-edge practices and strong brand.

The group of about 30 people was also taken on a tour of the Whistler Public Library, the Rainbow neighbourhood and the Lost Lake Passivhaus to learn more about green and energy-efficient building features and the use of wood as a sustainable resource.

Whistler is a great place to host the GBM conference because it’s a really good showcase of B.C. wood and its uses, said Mike Cunningham, a representative for the conference.

“Look at the chalets, the residential homes, the construction — even the convention centre itself,” he said.

Besides Whistler’s abundance of wood, keeping the GBM in the resort helps to keep the invitation-only event small in order to keep that face-to-face interaction, according to Cunningham.

“For the buyers and the sellers the real advantage of this conference is that it gives them that opportunity to interact in a little more of a relaxed setting,” Cunningham said.

There was also plenty of opportunity for delegates to enjoy Whistler.

“They go golfing, they go up the gondola. Its spectacular scenery and they love it,” Cunningham said. “A lot of people bring their spouses with them too and compared to being somewhere stuck in a hotel, we intentionally design the conference with a lot of free time.”

It’s important to have the conference each year in order to attract new buyers and allow smaller B.C. companies to sell their B.C. wood products to the large international market, Cunningham added.

“For a large- to medium-sized company trying to sell to a huge market in China, if they have never done business in a place like that before it can be quite daunting for them to jump on a plane and fly over there and start looking for people to buy their product.”

Source: Whistler Question Local News – September 15, 2011

By Roy Manion

Global Buyers Mission:

I am sure you will be reading many articles on the GBM in this Wood Connections edition and this one will be no exception; however, this article will focus on just the Architect & Designer Program portion of the GBM.

For the A&D’s, the program began with Thursday’s Living and Building With Wood seminars, which we are pleased to report were among the best we have ever had and accordingly, received excellent reviews from those who attended.

On Friday, we introduced a new program for the architects and designers. In the past, we have take tnhem on site tours of some of the finer projects in Whistler. However, this year, in lieu of site tours, we opted for an architect’s only session with the manufacturers. One of the key reasons is that in previous years, while architects and designers walked the exhibit floor along with the buyers, many exhibitors didn’t get a real chance to talk to the A&D’s. While A&D’s wanted to learn about various products, they really didn’t want a sales presentation and in other cases they would look at a booth from a distance and if there wasn’t an immediate interest, they would simply walk by. In response to all this, Friday afternoon’s, Speed Learning Architects & Designers Only Session was developed.

For the A&D’s, we were able to provide them with Educational Credits for participating in the afternoon session. The A&D’s were broken up into small groups (maximum 4 people) with a specific agenda that required them to visit one of two preselected streams of 10 manufacturers, with each group starting at different exhibitors booths – sort of like “speed dating”.

For the participating exhibitors, they had to prepare 15 minute educational mini seminars which they gave to each of the 10 groups in their “stream”. By the end of the day, many exhibitors were hoarse – a sign they did a lot of talking which was a good thing.

As the program was new, neither the manufacturers nor the A&D’s quite knew what to expect. For many, this was the first time they gave an accredited educational seminar to the A&D’s. The A&D’s, for their part, were pleasantly surprised that they received educational sessions and not “sales pitches”. Some even said they were the most intense series of seminars they had ever attended.

One of the many positives from the session is that A&D’s were expected to sit in on presentations that they initially felt were of no interest, only to find that in some cases, an interest did indeed exist. In at least one case, an architect and exhibitor found a common interest and as a result, the exhibitor could be supplying a major project the architect is working on – a situation that would have never developed without this particular session.

The consensus is that both sides want the program to continue next year.

Architect Program:

Now that the GBM is mostly behind us (we are still collecting surveys to determine what we did right and where improvement is required), we are moving onto our regular A&D programs with a number of activities already booked for October.

Specifiers Guide:

As we have mentioned in the past, the Guide is available on 2GB flash drives which were given out at the GBM. We now have the Guide on-line, in hard cover and on flash drives, which means that we have all the architects and designers requirements handled. If you wish to have your company included in the Specifiers Guide, please let me know.

As always, we welcome your company participation in any of the programs relating to architects, designers, contractors, and local governments, or if you just require additional information, please contact me at rmanion@bcwood.com. If you aren’t quite sure if the aforementioned group should be included in your marketing activities or how to go about doing it, again, just get in touch with us. We would be pleased to provide answers to any of your questions.

Please note that I will be on vacation the weeks of September 26th and October 3rd, returning the day after Thanksgiving.

When British Columbia’s value-added wood sector opens its Global Buyers Mission Thursday at Whistler, Kun Wang will be one of a record high number of Chinese business people attending the three-day trade show.

For the first time in its eight-year history, the premiere trade show for British Columbia wood products is attracting more buyers from China than from the United States.

Twenty-four Chinese companies have signed up for the Global Buyers Mission, compared to 22 U.S. companies. Add to that list 13 Japanese companies, 11 Korean companies, eight from India, five from Taiwan and five from Vietnam, and Asia’s emerging role as a buyer of B.C. wood products becomes much more clear. Sixty-eight of the 99 business delegations at the event come from Asia.

The purpose of the event, put on by the trade association BC Wood, is to bring international buyers of wood products together with B.C. value-added manufacturers, who generate $4.85 billion a year in export sales. Products on display range from kitchen cabinets to log homes and cross-laminated timber panels, a relatively new product aimed at replacing concrete in commercial construction.

China’s growing interest in B.C. wood products is just another chapter in China’s need for resources to fuel its manufacturing, Wang said in an interview before the conference opened. Investors and buyers alike are seeking out new sources of supply, he said.

But differences between the two business cultures often make closing a deal difficult, Wang said, especially for small-to-medium-size businesses in both countries. Even getting a visa can be insurmountable for a medium-sized manufacturer in a Chinese city where there is no Canadian visa office, he said.

On the Canadian side, a sawmill may want to develop ties with Chinese manufacturers but does not have the in-house staff that the larger companies have to forge cross-Pacific links.

That’s where the Global Buyers Mission comes in, bringing Canadian companies in direct contact with potential customers. Wang expects the conference to be fertile ground for his company, Youtal Supply Chain Management Inc. He specializes in bridging the business gap for medium-sized businesses, both here and in China, by providing services and reducing the risk for Chinese investors.

Every year we bring a new group of buyers from Japan to BC Wood’s GBM in Whistler. To be honest, this year I was quite worried about who from Japan would be willing to travel overseas considering everything that has happened since the March 11^th earthquake. However, it turned out that there were many people that despite everything did not want to miss this opportunity to visit Canada and meet with potential suppliers. As a result, we have another great group of 24 Japanese industry professionals coming for the GBM.

The core of this year’s delegation is a group of nine interior design professionals. Through our participation in Tokyo Designers Week we have become quite close with Hiroko Machida who not only runs her own interior design schools (Machida Hiroko Academy), but is also credited with being one of the first to bring “imported housing” to Japan from North America. She personally wanted to attend this year’s GBM and then decided to organize a group of interior designers she is connected with to come with her. For this reason, our extended mission this year is going to focus on how wood is used in Canada both as a finishing material and structurally on buildings that would typically not be built in wood in Japan. Hiroko and her group are also excited to see new and innovative products when we get to Whistler.

The rest of our delegation is made up of a wide spectrum of companies spanning the Japanese housing industry including trading companies, WRC specialists, a sawmill, log home builders, import housing companies, as well as general building products importers. One new interesting member of our delegation is a company based in Japan that maintains all of its manufacturing facilities in China. They currently already use Canadian SPF, but are now looking for other lumber from Canada including hardwoods. Hopefully BC Wood members will be able to meet all of our Japanese guests in Whistler and I encourage you to stop me on the show floor if you would like a specific introduction.

See you in Whistler!

The Global Buyers Mission is just around the corner and is expected to be a tremendous opportunity for BC Wood members to connect with customers from the Asian markets. By now, companies exhibiting should have the complete list of buyers that are registered and attending next week’s event. Currently, we are expecting over 38 buyers from China looking to meet with Canadian companies.

Members that are looking to connect specifically with a Chinese buyer that they are interested in are encouraged to connect with Mr. Jeff Li, BC Wood’s in-market rep in Shanghai at li@canadawood.cn . If members have any questions about the Chinese market and BC Wood program activities, please contact David Pao at dpao@bcwood.com

Roy Manion

GBM:

Since our last Wood Connections, the architect program has been almost all about the GBM – almost! After a slow start with sign-ups, we will again have a great turnout from the architect and designer community and we will have an even greater turnout this year than we last year. This is a great testament to the draw that our industry provides.

All of the exhibitors who will be giving presentations to architects on Friday afternoon have either completed their presentations or are currently putting the final touches on them. It is somewhat of a challenge for those who have never presented to architects in the past as the presentations must be educational and generic. As most of us are sales people, it is tough not to be overtly promoting our companies and products. However, based on the presentations we have received, I am very pleased with the caliber of them as they are all very professional and I think it will be a mutually beneficial event for both the architects and the companies involved.

Architect Program:

While the past couple of weeks have been mostly about the GBM, we still continue on with other programs. In this regard, we are now up to 5 L&L sessions that we have booked for the month of October, as well as continuing to work with companies in our industry to assist them in their pursuit of architects.

As we do with all of our Wood Connections reports, we welcome your company to participate in any of the programs or if you just require additional information, please contact me at rmanion@bcwood.com . If you aren’t quite sure if architects (and contractors) should be included in your marketing activities or how to go about doing it, again, just get in touch with us. We would be pleased to provide answers to any of your questions.

 Registration for the 8th annual GBM is now sold-out completely. We are delighted to host over 600 delegates to the event this year. The entire office will be in Whistler from Tuesday, September 6th to Sunday, September 11th.

Click here for a current listing of participating industry manufacturers and suppliers.

You can access the current list of registered buyers from Europe, Japan, Korea, China, Malaysia, India, United Arab Emirates, Australia, Mexico, United States, Vietnam and Taiwan. Click here for the international buyer listings.

As many of you know, we are also delivering the Living and Building with Wood Forum on Thursday, September 8th, as part of the GBM Program. Participants include: architects & designers; municipal planners; engineers; developers and builders and will be attending to learn about how to use wood in both commercial and residential projects. Click here for a listing of LBWW participants.

The overall GBM Schedule of Events can be accessed by clicking here.

You can also check out BC Wood’s website (www.bcwood.com) for GBM info, lists of past buyers and exhibitors, and great event photos from 2009 and 2010.

We would like to thank our partners and sponsors, without whom this program could not be delivered: Platinum Partners: Natural Resources Canada Wood Export Program (CWEP); Forestry Innovation Investment Ltd. (FII); and Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC); our Silver Partners: Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) and the Cedar Shake & Shingle Bureau (CSSB); and our Bronze Partners: the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) and HSBC Canada. Our Corporate Sponsors this year include The Waldun Group, Howe Sound / Pallin Timber and BFL Canada Insurance Services Inc.

To those of you already registered, we look forward to seeing you on the Mountain!

For more information, please contact me at rwalker@bcwood.com  or call me at 604-882-7100.

September 8th to 10th in Whistler – Exhibit space is sold-out and you can click here for a current listing of participating manufacturers and suppliers.

You can access the current list of registered buyers from Europe, Japan, Korea, China, Malaysia, India, United Arab Emirates, Australia, Mexico, United States, Vietnam and Taiwan and although we are still waiting for a few more confirmations, I believe our buyer list is 90% complete.  Click here for the listings.

The overall GBM Schedule of Events can be accessed by clicking here.

You can also check out BC Wood’s website ( www.bcwood.com) for GBM info, lists of past buyers and exhibitors, and great event photos from 2009 and 2010.

As many of you know, we are also delivering the Living and Building with Wood Forum on Thursday, September 8th, as part of the GBM Program.  Participants include: architects & designers; municipal planners; engineers; developers and builders and will be attending to learn about how to use wood in both commercial and residential projects.  They will also have the opportunity to meet the manufacturers and suppliers during the program at the GBM, who supply the materials to help them successfully complete their contracts. To see the list of registered participants, click here.

We must thank our partners and sponsors, without whom this program could not be delivered: Platinum Partners: Natural Resources Canada Wood Export Program (CWEP); Forestry Innovation Investment Ltd. (FII); and Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC); our Silver Partners: Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) and the Cedar Shake & Shingle Bureau (CSSB); and our Bronze Partners: the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) and HSBC Canada. Our Corporate Sponsors this year include The Waldun Group, Howe Sound / Pallin Timber and BFL Canada Insurance Services Inc.

To those of you already registered, we look forward to seeing you on the Mountain!

For more information on what registration opportunities are still available, please contact me at rwalker@bcwood.com  or call me at 604-882-7100.

GBM:

With the GBM now just a little over two weeks away, everything is in high gear as we put the final touches on what looks to be another great event. Living & Building with Wood (LBWW) delegates continue to sign up, speakers are putting the final touches on their seminars, and all of the exhibitors who will be participating in the LBWW program on Friday afternoon are also working on their presentations. The Friday afternoon LBWW session is new to the GBM and if everything works out as planned, it should be a great addition and a win-win for both the architects and the exhibitors.

Architect Program:

We conducted another 3 lunch & learn sessions over the past two weeks; one focusing on the Wood First Act, one on Timber Frame, and the third split between the Wood First Act and Millwork. That will be it until October as the GBM will use up all our time from now until well after the event. Having said that, we have already booked 4 sessions for October and are also working on 3 mill tours, so once the GBM is behind us, we will be back into our architect and designer program in full force.

In reviewing why there was so much activity with the A&D program during this summer which is normally a very quiet period, I believe it can be attributed to two major factors:

1. BC Wood has become more recognized in the A&D community both as a resource and a deliverer of excellent seminars – many by member companies
2. BC Wood’s expanding exposure in the A&D community along with the province’s Wood First Legislation has increased the architects’ and designers’ desire to learn more about BC’s value-added wood industry and the products we produce.

As we do with all our Wood Connections reports, we welcome your company to participate in any of the programs or if you just require additional information, please contact me at rmanion@bcwood.com . If you aren’t quite sure if architects (and contractors) should be included in your marketing activities or how to go about doing it, again, just get in touch with us. We would be pleased to provide answers to any of your questions.

Interest for Canadian wood products from Chinese wood buyers is very strong judging by this year’s list of incoming delegates to the Global Buyers Mission in September. In an update from our in-market rep, Jeff Li, there are over 40 buyers signed up to participate at this year’s event in Whistler. These companies represent key players in the Chinese wood industry, as well as several new companies looking to learn more about Canadian companies. This year, the group will include key wholesalers, distributors, and manufacturers, but will also include several Chinese builders, architects, and developers.

Also in September, BC Wood will participate for the first time in the 10^th China International Exhibition on Housing Industry (CIEHI). This event will take place in Beijing from September 27-29, 2011 and will focus on real estate and property developers from around various regions in China. This event will be focused on new housing construction and green building technology (low carbon homes) in the Chinese market. The event is hosted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Construction. Other organizers also include the China Real Estate Association, Beijing Construction Committee, and Beijing Housing Technology Development Co.

BC Wood, along with Canada Wood partners, COFI and CFPA, see a strong potential for Canadian wood products at this event and will coordinate participation. Companies interested in getting into the Chinese market that would find value in this event include manufacturers of:

Glulam and heavy timbers
Prebuilt homes
Outdoor wood products
Landscaping products
Exterior siding and panel products

For more information about the Chinese market and the CIEHI event, please contact David Pao at dpao@bcwood.com

A few comments, suggestions, and insights that may be of interest to industry…

I was in Seattle last week to meet with David Leavengood, principle of Leavengood Architects. This firm designs high-end public and residential projects for clients across the Western United States. Of particular interest to Leavengood is the redesign and renovation of historic lodges. He has worked on numerous projects for federal and State parks across the US and is currently working on the redesign of Crater Lake Lodge in Oregon.

According to Leavengood, “There’s the whole fantasy-storybook aspect of lodges. That has a lot to do with people searching them out. They go on vacation, exploring, spending relaxing time with family. It’s an opportunity to put fantasy into their lives. Lodges — the good lodges — always communicate that aspect.”

The firm believes in being true to the original design as the hand-hewn quality of lodges often has to do with the fact that the designers are not always professionally trained.  “In remote regions, the builders are ranchers — cowboys who get a notion into their head, seek out available materials nearby, and assemble it as simply as they can without the refinements that architects might bring to it”.  The firm’s vision brings considerable sophistication to the rough-and-tumble functionalism of Western ranch-home tradition.

“I got discovered while teaching in Montana. You do one log, heavy-timber building with stonework and a rusticated vocabulary and your name gets passed around. Small cabins grew into bigger personal lodges, then into ranches with horse barns and outbuildings. These are communities, and we are doing all the infrastructure and land reclamation, along with designing the buildings.” The firm has a branch in Jackson, Wyo., and does more work in Wyoming, Oregon, California, and Montana than it does in Washington.

The good news for members wanting to work with creative talented architects such as David Leavengood is that he is planning on attending the GBM in Whistler this September. For more information on his firm check out his website at www.leavenarch.com

Some interesting developments on the Suncadia resort development. For background, Suncadia is a 6000 acre semi private resort community located in Roslyn Washington in the Cascade Mountains – a 1 hour drive outside of Seattle.

The development was conceived by the Jeld-Wen company, the huge window and door manufacturer located in Klamath Falls, WA. After some considerable pain and financial restructuring due to the recession, The Suncadia development is back and a decent number of residential and light commercial construction projects are currently underway.

The resort resembles Whistler a few decades ago with Mountain inspired homes situated around two golf courses a small village center and an owners lodge and fitness center.

Good opportunity exists for manufacturers who produce heavy timbers, millwork, and finished wood products that lend itself to the Mountain design. That is, if you have sold product in Whistler you may want to keep an eye on the Suncadia development over the next while.

For more information on Leavengood architects, Suncadia, or other opportunities in the Western US please feel free to contact me at dfarley@bcwood.com

You are invited to participate in a special networking event to kick-off the GBM, which officially starts in Whistler, Thursday the 8th.

As part of our Extended Mission Program, incoming international buyers will be participating in a private Sunset Dinner & Harbour Cruise aboard the MV Harbour Princess, departing Coal Harbour Vancouver at 6:30 PM on Wednesday, September 7th. This special “pre-event” Global Buyers Mission evening is with our International buyers from Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Due to the popularity of the event, we are opening registration early for our industry members in BC.

This is an excellent opportunity to meet the pre-qualified buyers, particularly if you are not already participating in the GBM in Whistler.

Click here for the registration form to guarantee your space on the Cruise!

Roy Manion

This week, we are wrapping up quite an active month with the architect program. June activities included:

• AWMAC Convention in Osoyoos where we exhibited, attended some highly interesting seminars, and met a number of individuals from BC’s Millwork Sector.
• 2 Factory Tours and seminars (Unison Windows and Doors in North Vancouver and Structurlam Products in Penticton and Okanagan Falls)
• Participated at an open house for Tamlin International’s new facility in Aldergrove
• Conducted a lunch and learn session on Cabinetry with one of our members carrying the ball in the session. This session was requested by the architect firm on that specific topic. This was in follow up to a previous session we held for the firm.

Details of the two factory tours are as follows:

Unison Windows and Doors:
Located in North Vancouver, Unison is a designer and manufacturer of high end wood windows and doors, primarily for the residential market. The two hour event included seminars on how to use wood windows for multi-story floor to ceiling glazing systems and how wood glazing systems can be made to provide low maintenance wood exteriors and achieve many structural advantages over aluminum frames. Also featured were 2 architects who were frequent specifiers of wood windows and gave presentations from the architect’s perspective on the advantages that wood windows offer and also responded to questions.

The tour included demonstrations on glazing, laminating different wood species together, and water testing required to achieve certifications. Approximately 25 architects attended the 2 hour session.

Structurlam Products Inc
This was a full day event also attended by 25 architects. The primary purpose was to tour Structurlam’s brand new CrossLam facility in Okanagan Falls, the largest Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) plant in Western Canada and one of the world’s most modern. During the tour, we witnessed the preparation and lay-up of CLT panels – which can be as large as 10′ wide and 40′ long – and the planing of these large panels.

We also toured Structurlam’s Glulam plant in Penticton and while there had demos on 5 Axis CNC and 3D modeling. At lunch we had a seminar by Robert Malczyk of Equilibrium Consulting on the advantages of CLT panels and their role in construction

We then toured the Okanagan College Campus which is in line for designation as BC’s first Living Building Challenge institutional structure and LEED Platinum certification. The day concluded with a wrap up at Poplar Grove Winery and included a little wine tasting.

Both tours were highly regarded by the architects who gave up considerable time to attend them and both give credence to the value of having architects tour members’ facilities.

We currently have 3 more factory tours in various stages of planning. However, with summer now hear, the Architect Program’s activities will definitely slow down. As always, it also allows us time to “retool”, and work on our data base of our target audiences. We also use the time to prepare for the GBM.

Global Buyers Mission (GBM):
We are well into the planning of the Architect Program for the GBM.

As you read in the last “Wood Connections”, this year we are offering an exciting new program for both the architects and exhibitors where all interested exhibitors will be able to give 15 minute presentations throughout Friday afternoon to the attending architects and designers. Arangements have been made with AIBC to make the presentations qualify for architects’ learning credits. We will be in touch with the exhibitors who have signed up for the program to assist in their presentations so if you don’t know exactly what to do, we will be there to help you.

Once we have finalized the speakers, which we are in the process of doing, we will be sending invitations to the architects and designers throughout the province. We expect this to happen next week. I have already been asked by a few architects if we are going to have a GBM this year so the awareness is definitely out there.

As always, should you want your company to participate in any of these program or just require additional information, please contact me at rmanion@bcwood.com. If you aren’t quite sure if architects should be included in your marketing activities or how to go about doing it, again, just get in touch with us. We would be pleased to provide answers to any of your questions and if you wish to proceed, to assist you in making your company “architect ready”.

Roy Manion

We are very excited to offer a new program to exhibitors interested in getting your message out directly to Architects at the GBM this year. We have been given the opportunity to offer important Learning Units to participating Architects & Designers through “one-on-one” meeting sessions with participating exhibitors. On Friday afternoon, we will have an “Architects & Designers only” session in the exhibition hall and participating exhibitors will be given an opportunity to present information about their products in 15 minute sessions, throughout the afternoon. These sessions will be conducted with 5 – 7 architects per group, moving from booth to booth from 1:30 – 5:00 PM. Each participating exhibitor will have the opportunity to present to over 60 Architects & Designers during the afternoon program.

As a bonus, BC Wood will be taking the participating exhibitors and Architects out to a group lunch, when the showroom closes at noon on Friday.

If you have already registered to exhibit at the GBM, you should contact me at rmanion@bcwood.com to make sure your name is on the list. If you have NOT already registered and received a booth space, you should contact Randi Walker in our office ASAP (rwalker@bcwood.com or call 604-882-7100). There are still booth spaces available, but we are already 70% sold on floor space, so you should do it soon.

This is an outstanding opportunity to meet these Architects & Designers and get your name and information about your products & services in their hands. Contact us soon!

We are delighted to announce the latest member addition to our Associate members, HSBC. HSBC is one of the world’s leading trade services organizations providing expertise worldwide and delivering innovative international trade financing solutions through an unrivalled global network. For BC Wood’s value-added manufacturers trading with buyers and suppliers, HSBC’s 3700 trade specialists in 64 countries and territories across Asia, the Americas, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, will help you reduce risks while growing your business.

HSBC is our newest corporate sponsor for the Global Buyers Mission (GBM™), scheduled for September 8th to 10th in Whistler. Vaughn Wright is the Assistant Vice President, Trade and Supply Chain in the Canadian Head Office in Vancouver and will be participating in the GBM this year. One of Vaughn’s specialty sectors is the wood products industry and his role is finding ways to help you do better business in off-shore markets.

If you would like to reach Vaughn, you can contact him at:
Phone: 604-641-1049
Email: Vaughn_Wright@hsbc.ca