The Conference Board of Canada is conducting a survey of employers and other stakeholders in the wood manufacturing sector to understand key trends and issues facing the sector and its workforce, and to identify the skills, knowledge, resources, and policies required to respond to changing industry needs. They have been asked by the Wood Manufacturing Council (WMC) to conduct the study and report on results in 2015.

If you are an employer, or make hiring decisions within your company, we invite you to complete a short online survey to offer your thoughts about the opportunities, challenges, trends and issues that the advanced wood manufacturing industry faces, as well as your suggestions for enhancing the competitiveness and sustainability of Canada's advanced wood products manufacturing industry. The insights and information you share will provide the WMC, governments, educational institutions, and other stakeholders with a better understanding of the industry's needs and how they can be addressed, as well as ideas about what is needed to improve industry performance.

Please click on http://surveys.conferenceboard.ca/s/wmc/?collector=73545 to complete the survey. A full explanation of the study is available at that link. All information will be treated as strictly confidential and results will be reported anonymously and in aggregate form only, not from individuals. The survey is open for completion until February 14, 2015.

We hope that you will take the time to contribute to this research. It is important that your voice be heard!

Free for Wood Connections readers!   

The seminar will present the challenges and opportunities for the design and construction of wood build industrial buildings in B.C. Speakers will provide an overview of the use of wood in industrial buildings, analyze architectural and structural solutions and compare long span and multi-span approaches. [AIBC 1.5 Core LUs, BOMI 1.5 CPDs]

Speakers:

• John Hemsworth, Architect AIBC, M. ARCH. B.Eng, LEED AP, Principal, Hemsworth Architecture
• Robert Malczyk, MASc, P.Eng, StructEng, MIStructE, MBA, Principal, Equilibrium Consulting Inc.

 http://buildexvancouver.com/education/2015-program/day-1-wednesday-february-25-2015/#W04   

The 11th annual Wood Design Awards in BC will recognize leadership and innovation in wood use, while being an opportunity to publicly honour and encourage continued excellence in the building and design community.

Date: Monday, March 2, 2015

Location: Vancouver Convention Centre - West

For more information and tickets, please contact Zena Caul at 1-877-929-9663 ext 4 or visit  www.wood-works.ca/bc  

UBC - Centre for Advanced Wood Processing (CAWP) will be offering two online courses: Business Finance and Investment Evaluation, and Safety and Human Resources Management, starting March 2 - April 13, 2015.   

These wood products industry specific courses are designed for owners, managers, supervisors or management tracked employees. These are not academic courses and the skills learned can be applied immediately to the work place. Each part-time course is led by a tutor with extensive industry experience. 

For more information on the courses, please click on the following link: Management Skill Training

BC Jobs Grant - Training Funding

The courses also qualify for training funding through BC Jobs Grant.  Please visit the following website  http://www.workbc.ca/canadabcjobgrant for more information or call Jason Chiu at 604 822-0082 

Wide Belt Sanding: Best Practices Workshop

If you have a wide-belt sander and want to reduce your operating costs and increase your sanding quality - then this seminar is for you!

Items that will be covered in this Workshop 

* Scratch and how it relates to finishing
* Standardized Work / Job Instruction
* Trouble shooting and Testing your machine
* Q&A Session

Start Time and Agenda: 

* Hands on Session - noon - 2:00pm
Lunch will be provided

Choose from Two Locations:

Surrey, BC

March 19, 2015 - 8:30am - 2:00pm

Merit Kitchens - 12158 86 Ave, Surrey

Kelowna, BC

March 25, 2015 - 8:30am - 2:00pm 

Are you planning your next trade show or event? Do you know you have an average of 3 seconds to make an impression on an attendee?

It can be a challenge to conduct successful events, identify the right display, maximize crowd impact, and get the best return on your investment.

These 10 tips will help you rock your next trade show:

1. Create the buzz on social media. Promote on your website and get the word out with LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Ideally, this should be done pre-event, at event and post-event. Include photos of your display with your booth staff. Acknowledge comments on the social media sites by tweeting or liking back.

Kalesnikoff Lumber Co. is located just outside of Castlegar in the heart of the fertile West Kootenay Wet-Belt. This beautiful region in the southeast corner of BC creates a unique slow growth environment for species including Douglas Fir, Western Larch, Lodgepole Pine, Western Hemlock, Engelmann Spruce, and Western White Pine. These excellent growing conditions enable us to produce some of the highest quality fine grained fiber in the world.

Proudly family owned and operated, Kalesnikoff Lumber Co. celebrated 75 years in business in 2014. As an independent, family owned and operated company, they think in terms of generations, not fiscal quarters.

Kalesnikoff operates a modern, multi-species mill with a capacity of 75 million fbm.  Aligned with a vertically integrated, modern manufacturing facility (Kootenay Innovative Wood), Kalesnikoff now offers over 1,000 different products in both custom and standard dimensional sizes.  

Please click here to read the entire article 

The deadline for confirming space at the upcoming Turkeybuild show in Istanbul is fast approaching. For any company wanting to participate in the Turkeybuild show within the BC Wood pavilion, who has not done so already, please contact Brian Hawrysh at bhawrysh@bcwood.com or in the office at 604-882-7100 by Wednesday, Feb 18th, 2015.

Over the next couple of months, BC Wood will be coordinating the participation of its' members at the Edmonton Cottage Life and Cabin show, April 24-26th, 2015. After many successful years of running the Cottage Life shows in Ontario, the show organizers brought their winning formula West and launched the Edmonton show last year. Eight BC Wood members participated for the first time in last year's show and by all accounts it was was very successful, attracting over 8,000 current and would-be cottage owners all over Western Canada.

The Edmonton show will feature builders of log, timber frame, and prefabricated 2x4 homes. While these products and services are the highlight of the show, there is an opportunity for other manufacturers to promote finished building materials such as flooring, roofing, kitchens, doors, windows, and exterior finishing materials. The audience is drawn to the show to see a complete range of products; from log and timber frame shells to the materials that are need to finish them.

Space is still available for BC Wood members wanting to participate in the Edmonton Cottage Life and Cabin Show, but, time is running out. I would encourage any companies interested in more information to contact me at bhawrysh@bcwood.com or in BC Wood's offices at 604-882-7100.

In January, BC Wood participated with four member companies in the BAU fair in Munich. In a similar report, two years ago, I mentioned that I thought the BAU fair was probably the best show I have attended in recent years. For the record, the 2015 version of the BAU fair was even better than it was two years ago. Many other shows claim large attendance numbers; however, these numbers are often inflated based on the practice of allowing the general public access to the show. The BAU fair is a strictly trade-only event; 96% of the attendees are from construction related businesses, and this year, the BAU fair attracted over 255,000 visitors to the six day show, 20,000 more than two years ago.

The BAU fair has a strong international draw with over 75,000 of the attendees coming from countries outside Germany. This year saw strong contingents from Turkey, Poland, the Czech Republic, Saudi Arabia, and other Middle Eastern countries. The BAU fair also lived up to its reputation as the "architects fair" with close to 65,000 attendees coming from architectural, planning, and design offices.

Please click here to read the entire article   

A few comments, suggestions, and ideas that may be of interest to the industry...

If anyone needed convincing that the US economy is firing on all cylinders, one need look no further than the city of Las Vegas and the annual International Builders Show (IBS 15). The event, which took place January 21 -23, was jammed pack with nearly 125,000 participants, including buyers and suppliers in the residential and light commercial construction sector from across North America, Asia, and Europe. Many buyers that came by the coordinated BC Wood products pavilion commented on how busy the show was and many long term attendees suggesting that attendance was reaching the numbers "pre recession hey days" of 2003-2005.

Part of the reason for the significant jump in attendance was the concerted effort of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) to combine a number of residential construction related trade events into one week. The NAHB brought the International Builders Show, the Kitchen and Bath Show, and the Surfaces Flooring Show all to Las Vegas and created the newly titled Design and Construction Week. With that, builders, architects, designers, specifiers, and other buyers had the ability to meet with suppliers from across the residential and light commercial sector all at one time in a single city. That made for a busy week with buyers shuttling on buses across the city between the Las Vegas Convention Center and the Mandalay Bay Hotel where Surfaces was being held. Add in Shot, The Gun and Sharp shooters show (this could only happen in Vegas!) and the city was packed with over 155,000 folks attending one or all of these trade events.

Please click here to read the entire article 

Housing Brand Fair 2015 

    

On behalf of members, BC Wood organizes one major construction show each year in the Korean market. For this fiscal year, we chose the Housing Brand Fair at Seoul's centrally located COEX trade and convention centre. The COEX Centre underwent extensive renovations last year, but it recently reopened and is once again drawing in large crowds. Over the four days of the show in late January, 45,000+ people came to see the Housing Brand Fair.

The Housing Brand Fair attracted a large cross-section of the construction industry including companies involved in new wood framed construction, condominium developments, as well as renovations. Therefore, the show was a great venue for a wide range of BC Wood members, from lumber to house packages to finishing materials. Being held in Seoul's main business district also ensures that key decision makers from these companies can easily visit. Our in-market representative, JC Lee, made the most of this convenient location by setting up extensive meetings for participating members. This type of pre-show assistance is key to having a successful show as it ensures that members know that they will be able to meet the key targets for their products.

Please contact JC Lee (lee@canadawood.or.kr) or myself (ivanoff@canadawood.jp) for more information on the opportunities in the Korean market.