The Global Buyers Mission was a tremendous success for BC Wood’s China program as we had well over 35 delegates from China looking to source Canadian wood products. Participants expressed very positive reaction and enthusiasm in coming to Whistler and meeting with BC Wood members. Following the event, Mr. Jeff Li, BC Wood’s in-market representative in China, took several of the Chinese buyers on an extended mission program, visiting member companies on-site at their facilities. The program was well received both from members and the mission delegates.

As the momentum and energy of the GBM settles down, we are back to work making final preparations for the CIEHI show in Beijing. This will mark the first time BC Wood is attending the 3-day conference and we look forward to making new contacts and gathering market intelligence about China’s building and construction sector. For more updates on this event, follow us on Twitter @BC_Wood

A few thoughts, observations, and ideas that may be of interest to industry.

With the end of summer quickly approaching, the BC Wood trade show season for the US market begins. October is an extremely busy, with 3 trade events taking place during the month. First up is the AIA Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii, followed by the AIA Mountain States in Keystone, Colorado, finally ending with the Sunbelt Builders Show in Austin, Texas. Outside of the 4 time zone changes, I should at the least pick up a decent amount of air miles.

I have discussed the various strengths and opportunities I see in each one of these markets in past issues of the Wood Connections newsletter, but suffice it to say, I think the potential for BC manufacturers to develop market share in these states is good. Our program is designed to use the trade event as a platform to connect with key buyers and decision makers in the region. We then follow-up the trade show with a mission component, including individual meetings directly with these buyers at their offices, or on site touring their construction projects.

It is last minute and the Hawaii event is all but sold out; however, there are still limited opportunities for members to participate in the Colorado and Austin events. If you are interested or want more information, please contact me ASAP. Also, if you are unable to participate directly, but would like to get leads and have your promotional materials delivered first hand to these buyers, send me an email to further discuss. There is a nominal charge, but it provides manufacturers with a way to test the waters in these markets with a minimal investment.

As always, if you have any further comments, questions, or need more information on the US market, please feel free to contact me at dfarley@bcwood.com

BC Wood will once again be coordinating the shipment of member tradeshow booths to the 2011 NAWLA show.  If you are a BC Wood member and are planning on attending this year’s show, please take advantage of this cost saving opportunity.  In addition, fully paid Signature level members will also receive further savings on booth costs.

An email will be sent out to members within the next 10 days outlining detailed instructions.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact BC Wood at 604-882-7100.

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.

This week is National Forest Week. This event has been held since 1920 to create greater awareness of the importance of Canadian Forests to Canada.  To learn more about National Forest Week, please click here.

September 21st marks the very first National Tree Day.  What will you do to celebrate National Forest Week and National Tree Day?

Chuck Norris’s toughness is so legendary, there are hundreds of Chuck Norris jokes on the internet about his strength and fearsomeness. For example:

• Guns are warned not to play with Chuck Norris.
• Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door.
• Death once had a near-Chuck Norris experience.

But what if Chuck Norris was an exhibitor?  What feats of strength, endurance, and excellence could Chuck bring to trade shows?  The mind boggles at the possibilities:

1. Chuck Norris sent a direct mail pre-show promotion to 100 pre-registered attendees – and 101 came.
2. Show contractors are so scared of Chuck Norris, they don’t charge him drayage.
3. Half of Chuck Norris’s competitors backed out of the show when they heard he was exhibiting there.
4. Chuck Norris is so smart, he selected a show where 100% of the entire buying market was attending.
5. Chuck Norris fixed a broken weld on his exhibit by squeezing it.  With only two fingers.  Of his left hand.
6. Chuck Norris installed an island trade show exhibit in just one hour.  Without tools, instructions, or a ladder.  On straight time.  With a 15-minute break.
7. When Chuck Norris did a social media promotion for his trade show booth via Twitter, he caused the #failwhale to appear – and then it asked for his autograph.
8. Chuck Norris doesn’t need crowd gathers when he booth staffs; he needs crowd dispersers.
9. Chuck Norris doesn’t need to qualify leads, because all his leads are “A” leads.
10. Chuck Norris doesn’t need to measure his trade show results, because they all bought.

Click here to read the entire article

To view the Social Media Release, click here: http://smr.newswire.ca/en/homeowner-protection-office/new-guide-to-improve-wood-frame-construction

The Province is releasing a new guide that builds on industry knowledge gained over the past decade to enhance the quality of wood-frame, multi-unit residential buildings constructed in British Columbia.

The guide explores the latest research, design and construction best practices for building enclosures and is an invaluable reference for the construction industry.

The Building Enclosure Design Guide – Wood-Frame Multi-Unit Residential Buildings offers practical solutions to help ensure that new residential buildings are well constructed for B.C. families and residents.

Developed in consultation with an industry task group, it updates earlier best practice guides that have been instrumental in creating a consistent approach to the design and construction of effective building envelopes.

Available from the Homeowner Protection Office, a branch of BC Housing, this comprehensive guide is intended to assist members of B.C.’s residential construction industry – particularly builders, architects, designers and contractors. It is also an excellent resource for industry educators.

Click here to read the entire article

Congratulations!  You’ve just finished your latest trade show and now have a big pile of leads.  But there’s no time to rest – you still have two more races to win:

1. The sprint to get your leads fulfilled in the minutes, hours, and days after the show, and
2. The marathon to keep following up your leads for the weeks, months, and even years after the show.

Let’s look what you need to do to win both the sprint and the marathon.

1.  The Sprint of Trade Show Lead Fulfillment

To win the sprint, quickly send out your fulfillment packets, and get the lead information into the hands of the right sales person.  Here’s how:

 Click here to read the entire article

Forestry Innovation Investment is happy to share with you our Annual Trend Data Analysis for 2010.  FII provides this information to the B.C. industry to help identify and capitalise on market opportunities for B.C. wood products.

Two documents are available for your review.

• Volume 1 includes a global overview of wood products markets and a breakdown of B.C. export data

• Volume 2 is a market by market analysis of USA, Japan, China, South Korea, India, Taiwan, European Union, Australia, and New Zealand.

Market summaries include in-depth information and analysis on wood products trade data and summary data only for the Pulp and Paper Sector.   Summaries are also provided for Vietnam, Middle East for wood products only and for Pulp and Paper only in Mexico.

FPInnovations prepared these reports based on global trade data sources.

These reports are available on our website (www.bcfii.ca). If you do not already have a password you can apply on the website to get a password to access these reports and a variety of other trend information and statistics collected and published by FII.