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Missed previous Wood Connections issues? 

Telling your story for maximum impact and profit in the digital age is a daunting task if you don't have a clear objective and know how to use social media channels wisely. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google plus, Youtube, Instagram, Pinterest and Vine - how can you possibly keep up? For busy businesses who often don't have a marketing agency to delegate to, being smart with your time and budget matters. This one-day session will help you learn to select the best channels to connect with your target audience, how to use those channels effectively, how to manage your time, and forget the rest - guilt free because you're marketing smarter, not harder!

Locations & Dates:

Surrey - January 28, 2014

Victoria - TBA

Kelowna -TBA

To register or for more information, please contact Scott Thompson at 604-882-7100.

Jonathan Christian is the Creator and Chief Strategist at We Make Stuff Happen, a unique BC based Consulting Consortium helping businesses and non-profits locally and internationally tell their story through digital networks. A recognized Social Media Thought Leader, Jonathan brings tremendous energy, experience and enthusiasm to his sessions. 

Jonathan has trained hundreds of local business how to "get and go Social" In many cases reducing existing marketing budgets but delivering a much higher ROI (Return on Investment) You'll learn that the real value of Social Media is ROR (Return on Relationship).

Many leading wood products manufacturers are at the top of their game because they know what their costs are, and can consistently produce their products - key elements to increasing profitability!

Unfortunately, many other companies produce a quality product that achieves the requirements of their customer, but do not have a system in place to ensure that the product will always achieve this goal.

Maybe you already have a quality system in place?

Would you like to know ways to make it better? Or find out how to start tracking the information that is most important to your business?

Join FPInnovations in this short webinar on January 13, 2014 as we share our best manufacturing practices knowledge, and information on the quality system practice of non-conformance reporting and root-cause analysis - methods that once applied will help you improve your quality system. 

Click here to register for this free 30 minute webinar:  https://www.eply.com/non-conformance_reporting_jan14

You invest a lot in the trade shows that you exhibit at. How much? At 36% of the average trade show budget, booth space costs are your single largest expense. Plus, your choice of shows affects the rest of your entire trade show budget.

Here are 13 signs it's time to stop exhibiting at a trade show and ply your business down different carpeted aisles:

1. The Wrong Attendees: If your buyers are not walking a show, then why exhibit there? The top reason exhibitors back out of a show, or take a smaller booth size, is because they don't find high quality attendees. The highest quality attendee looks like your best buyers - so figure out what your buyers look like, and then ask show owners to prove that their attendees match your buyers.

2. Low R.O.I: If you have a slate of trade shows that provide a range of R.O.I, then drop the shows at the lower end of the range, unless they achieve other key objectives besides Return On Investment.

3. Decreasing Qualified Attendance: Perhaps your target audience is at that show ... just fewer and fewer of them over the years. If there are other shows that keep delivering, then shift more dollars to those.

4. Rapidly Rising Exhibiting Costs: Trade shows provide a great value - they bring to B2B marketers a parade of potential buyers that allow exhibitors to meet more people face-to-face than they can from months of cold calling. But shows that try to squeeze every penny of profit from that advantage risk killing the golden goose. Booth space and drayage costs that increase multiple times faster than inflation? Not good. Not good at all.

Click here to read the entire article 

Interfor Transformation Builds Value by Increasing Production Capacity, Product Diversity, and Fibre Security

In the last 10 years, Interfor has tripled in size - moving from being a relatively small regional producer in British Columbia to becoming one of North America's largest lumber suppliers with one of the most diverse range of products in the business.

Over this time, the Company has invested nearly $1 billion to expand and upgrade its operations. It now has 13 mills across North America, an annual production capacity of 2.2 billion board feet, and customers in 30 markets around the world.

Interfor's Canadian operations are a key component of the company's growth strategy. For example, in BC's southern Interior, Interfor invested $24.3 million to upgrade its Grand Forks sawmill. It also acquired an additional long-term supply of Cedar in some of the highest-quality mixed stands in North America so it could add Inland Western Red Cedar to its Elite Kiln-Dried Lines.

Visit Interfor's updated website - www.interfor.com - to learn more about its growth, its commitment to quality, and its vision for the future.   

Roy Manion  

As this is our last article of 2013, I thought a look back on the program's activities over the past 12 months would be in order.

To summarize, 2013 was an incredibly busy 12 months for the Specifiers and related programs with a record number of lunch & learn sessions, group seminars and factory tours.  It also was a year for major program expansion as we increased our involvement with BC's two major contractor associations - the Vancouver Regional Construction Association (VRCA) and the Independent Contractors Business Association. 

2013 also saw us begin the process of assisting British Columbia's wood products manufacturers to reach out to the US and Alberta architects, through a series of seminars which will be delivered in the first quarter of 2014.

BC's Specifiers Program:

Over the past 12 months, we have held almost 60 events with Specifiers. These events included lunch & learn sessions, seminars throughout the province, and factory tours of manufacturers' facilities. In the case of the lunch & learn (or in one instance - a breakfast and learn) sessions, as we have stated in previous Wood Connections, most of these many were driven either by industry or by requests from the architects. This shows how far the program has advanced from its early days, when countless hours were spent convincing specifiers to allow us to put on educational sessions for their respective firms, on BC's great value-added wood industry. Today, we have the reputation of offering some of the finest seminars available to architects, a reputation we work hard to uphold.  As a result, it is not uncommon for a firm to contact us requesting a lunch & learn session on a particular product.  Also, when a participating company requests us to arrange a session or a factory tour, we have virtually a 100% success rate in arranging such sessions, all of which are "hosted" by BC Wood.

This past year also saw BC Wood developing closer relationships with BC's major construction associations. We attended, for the first time, the VRCA's annual conference where we exhibited many companies' products which began the process of generating the all-important exposure for these products to the many construction companies that attended this event. This year, one of VRCA's event organizers even volunteered to assist at the GBM to gain a greater insight into the event's workings and why it is so successful. There is no doubt that the knowledge gained will be useful in organizing their future events. Again, just an indication of how the program has been successful in reaching out, not only to those who specify products, but to those who use it.

Alberta and Pacific Northwest Architect Seminars:

As mentioned and as has been well documented in other editions of Wood Connections, BC Wood began the process of a major expansion of its outreach to specifiers as we are expanding the outreach program to include the Alberta and the Pacific Northwest specifier communities. In preparation, BC Wood has become Registered Providers with both the Alberta and US architect associations and has developed a very workable database of specifiers in these two jurisdictions. Speaking of architect associations, an interesting fact was brought to my attention recently. For individual companies who wish to become registered providers with the American Institute of Architects on a national basis, as BC Wood is, the cost is approximately $14,000.00 a year. While this is a lot of money for any firm, this isn't the only cost; a significant amount of time and effort is also required to obtain seminar approval and arrange the sessions; not to mention the cost of feeding your audience, a standard requirement for any architect session. Or - companies can participate in BC Wood's sessions at a fraction of the cost and BC Wood handles all the arrangements including meals.

These two programs are very exciting developments because some provinces and states, of which Oregon is one, are beginning the process of following BC's Wood First Program. Therefore, at this stage, for BC companies to create an awareness of their products to specifiers who undoubtedly will need to specify more and more wood products in the near future, this will definitely be a good thing!  While our current programs are both fully booked, we are already looking into our new fiscal year (beginning April 1, 2014) where we will be creating opportunities for additional companies to expose their products to the all-important specifier communities in Alberta and the US.  Stay tuned!!

Well, that's about it for this edition of Wood Connections for this year.  From my family to yours; have a very Merry Christmas and a successful 2014!

As always, should you want more information on any aspects of the Specifiers Program, including the associations we are now registered with, or participation in the US and Alberta events for their respective architects, please let me know by contacting me at rmanion@bcwood.com.

BUILDEX Vancouver is one of Canada's largest tradeshows and conferences, welcoming over 13,500 Design, Construction, and Real Estate Management professionals each year. Over 600 exhibits and more than 50 educational seminars impacting three distinct professional markets, all under one roof:

• Interior designers and architects
• Property and real estate management
• Construction and renovation

BC Wood is coordinating member participation at the upcoming Buildex Vancouver on February 19th and 20th, 2014. This event is for decision makers in the construction industry and is targeted towards professionals who need to know what wood products are available and how they can be used.  

The Buildex Show will give you an opportunity to talk to key architects, engineers, and the municipal officials on commercial, industrial and residential projects.  

Who Should Participate?

Companies manufacturing finished building materials, pre-fabricated structures and engineered wood products for commercial and large multi-family residential construction projects would benefit by participating in the BC Wood Pavilion at the 2014 Vancouver BUILDEX Show.

Very limited space is still available so please contact us as soon as possible if you are interested in exhibiting at this cost-shared event. Call Randi or Roy at 604-882-7100 or email rwalker@bcwood.com or rmanion@bcwood.com.

Recently, much has been made of the emerging opportunities for BC's forest products in India. In collaboration with Forestry Innovation and Investment's office in Mumbai and the Canadian High Commission office in Delhi, BC Wood will coordinate a mission in February 2014 for Industry members to investigate opportunities for sales of forest products in the India marketplace. Industry members will be invited to participate in the INDIAWOOD trade fair in Bangalore, Feb 21-24th, and a 3 day mission in Bangalore and Delhi to meet with timber importers and tour the manufacturing facilities of end-users.

The INDIAWOOD trade fair is one of Asia's biggest sourcing platforms for the manufacturers of furniture, building materials and giftware as well as domestic architects and interior designers. This event is expected to attract around 600 exhibitors from more than 40 countries and approximately 40,000 visitors from all over the world. The exhibitors at the 2014 event include a significant representation from overseas companies & country pavilions from Germany, Italy, Malaysia, China, USA, Taiwan & Turkey.

INDIAWOOD will definitely bring together market leaders from the woodworking sector to participate in this unique international display. For more information on INDIAWOOD and the proposed mission, contact Brian Hawrysh at 604-882-7100 or by email at bhawrysh@bcwood.com.

BC Wood will be organizing a booth for members at the next Kyung Hyang Housing Fair to be held from February 19th to 23rd at Kintex near Seoul. Kyung Hyang is the largest and most international building products show held in South Korea. Exhibitors come from other parts of Asia as well as Europe and North America. A wide range of products are covered at the show including lumber, millwork, kitchens, furniture, and house packages. Therefore, this show is ideal for a large cross-section of BC Wood members interested in targeting professionals in the Korean construction industry. The Korean Wood Builders Council also exhibits ensuring that the Korean wood housing industry focuses on this show.

While a little far from central Seoul, Kintex is a large, world class facility that is home to most of Korea's major trade shows. Recently, many new facilities have been built around Intex including western style hotels that give exhibitors the option to stay nearby. Kintex is also close to Incheon International Airport, thus offering easy access for members coming from Canada.

On behalf of BC Wood members interested in attending the show, BC Wood's Korean representative, JC Lee, has been negotiating with the Kyung Hyang Housing Fair organizers. One proposal that has been tabled is an offer to cover some of our members' travel costs for the show. For more information on this and the show, please contact Jim Ivanoff at ivanoff@canadawood.jp

After a very successful Japan Home and Building Show, we are now starting to prepare for the Nikkei Architectural and Construction Materials Show that will be held at Tokyo's Big Sight from March 4th through 7th, 2014. With the Japanese housing market being the strongest in many years, companies are  investing in new business development as shown by the fact that the Nikkei Show is already sold-out. Luckily with BC Wood's longstanding participation in the show, we have secured a pavilion in a prime location on behalf of our members.

The Nikkei Show is the largest show of its kind in Japan and sees over 250,000 industry professionals over the show's four days. The show attracts a great number of architects, but is also well attended by importers, distributors, and both residential and commercial builders. Therefore, the show is a good fit for producers of cabinetry, millwork, house packages including log and timberframe, as well as lumber and reman products. For more information, please e-mail me at ivanoff@canadawood.jp

BC Wood will return to Interzum Guangzhou from March 28th to April 1st 2014 giving members another opportunity to build and expand their businesses in the still growing Chinese market. This annual event covers every facet of wood furniture and building products manufacturing including both machinery and raw materials. It is said to be the largest woodworking show in Asia. Over 1,100 manufacturers and suppliers are expected to occupy the 130,000-square meter venue with 60,000 visitors expected.

Interzum has been attracting pavilions from Germany, the US, Italy, Turkey, Spain, Sweden, etc over the past ten years, covering a wide variety of both softwood and hardwood species. Due to the show's importance to the Chinese woodworking industry, buyers/ importers of all types of wood products visit. Therefore, this show will be of interest to members supplying a wide variety of softwood & hardwood lumber including for uses such as remanufacturing, concrete forming, as well as wood construction. For more information, please e-mail me at ivanoff@canadawood.jp.