The Great One is digging in for a great cause.

Wayne Gretzky will trade his hockey stick for a shovel Thursday, planting one of 28,000 trees across the nation as part of TD Tree Day.

“He will always be a name,” organizer Laura Ariabosse-Stewart said of Gretzky’s appearance in Vancouver.

The now-retired superstar — arguably the greatest player to lace on skates — will do his planting at in Stanley Park through his role as a TD brand ambassador.

“It’s a natural move to have him involved in things that the company is doing,” said Ariabosse-Stewart. “This is our second year, and we really want this to keep going, so it’s good to have some pull like that.”

The Brockton Oval gathering will also give registered volunteers a chance to get up close and personal with the hockey legend.

Gretzky is expected to make a speech at about 9:25 a.m., with the tree-planting to follow.

The Executive Director of Wood Works, says progress is being made when it comes to using wood in construction projects beyond housing construction.

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

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