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If you have not been featured in our Spotlight section and would like to be, please email me at rmann@bcwood.com or call 604-882-7100. You must be a value-added wood manufacturer in BC; however, you do not have to be a member of BC Wood, or any other association to participate and it is free of charge.
If you are using Microsoft Outlook to view this email, you may not be able to see all of the images. In this case, you can view the webpage version of this email by clicking on the link at the top of this email "Having trouble viewing this email? Click here" or visit our Wood Connections archives and click on 'Wood Connections - October 20, 2015' F eel free to send me news stories that you think our readers would be interested in. You can email them to rmann@bcwood.com
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| Industry News |
New UBC student residence to be among world's tallest wood buildings
One of the tallest wood buildings in the world will soon be constructed at UBC, providing housing for hundreds of students. When completed, the $51.5-million residence building will stand 53 metres tall (about 174 feet). "This beautiful, new tall wood building will serve as a living laboratory for the UBC community," said Martha Piper, interim president. "It will advance the university's reputation as a hub of sustainable and innovative design, and provide our students with much-needed on-campus housing."
Construction of the 18-storey tall wood student residence will begin later this fall, and the building is set to open in September 2017. It will house 404 students in 272 studios and 33 four-bedroom units, and feature study and social gathering spaces. There will also be a ground-floor lounge and study space for commuter students.
"This project shows that when it comes to building with wood, B.C.'s innovation can't be beat," said Steve Thomson, minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations. "By taking advantage of new building technologies, we're also expanding our markets for B.C. wood products - and supporting jobs in the forest sector."
Click here to read the entire article
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| Industry News | An Exciting Marketing & Branding Workshop Series in November!
What is marketing and why should you care? Business leaders who effectively communicate and correctly position their company with their target audiences have the competitive edge. This workshop series will be presented in three parts:
The first will be a half-day seminar focusing on the 7 fundamental marketing principles and how to effectively brand your company. You will also learn about the value of a Canadian brand. This is an excellent introduction or refresher, prior to participating in the subsequent lunch & learn workshops.
The second part is a lunch & learn focusing on marketing to your target audience. During this workshop, you will learn how to create your target audience profile, understand your audience's motivation, and identify your products/services benefits.
This workshop series wraps up with a lunch and learn focusing on how to achieve your business objectives through SWOT. You will be guided through this analytical workshop to build your own formalized tool that can be used to create a solid action plan.
Details:
Introduction to Marketing & Branding
Half-day seminar
Date: Tuesday, November 3, 2015, 12:30 pm to 4:30 pm
Location: Sandman Signature Langley - 8828 201 St., Langley, BC
Marketing to your Target Audience
Lunch & Learn
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm
Location: Sandman Signature Langley - 8828 201 St., Langley, BC
Achieving your Business Objectives Through SWOT (Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats)
Lunch & Learn
Date: Wednesday, November 25, 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm
Location: Sandman Signature Langley - 8828 201 St., Langley, BC
Register Now
THIS WORKSHOP IS OPEN TO ALL IN THE WOOD PRODUCTS INDUSTRY INCLUDING NON BC WOOD MEMBERS.
For more information or to register for this workshop, click here or contact Rumin Mann at 604-882-7100 or email rmann@bcwood.com if you have any questions.
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Industry News - FPInnovations Update
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Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) Webinar
October 22, 2015 - 10:30 - 11:00 a.m. PST (1:30 - 2:00 EST)
Buyers and product specifiers are demanding environmental information about the products they purchase and are driving the demand for environmentally friendly products.
Environmental product declarations (EPDs) are a standardized way for manufacturers to report on the environmental impacts associated with their products. The information reported in an EPD is primarily derived from life cycle assessment (LCA), a method used to measure emissions to air, land, and water resulting from the production, use, maintenance, and end-of-life of a product. EPDs are developed in line with well-established guidelines, and are viewed as a way to drive greater transparency in the marketplace.
In the construction sector for example, LCA and EPDs have recently been incorporated into the LEED rating system for buildings. It is expected that the trend that looks at the total embodied environmental footprint of a building will support increased market demand for wood products in the years to come.
Join us on October 22nd to learn more about how EPDs can make a difference in your business!
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Industry News - CAWP Update
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In late November, CAWP is offering two great opportunities for BC manufacturers to gain insights into European design and manufacturing practices around wood-based building products. Our annual technical tour to Europe kicks off in Milan on November 28th, and promises to be one of our most interesting offerings yet. One week before we go, join us at UBC when we invite two of Europe's most advanced practitioners in the design and fabrication of complex timber structures to share their experience and knowledge with us.
Please feel free to inquire directly with me - Jason Chiu - if you'd like further details on either of these. I can be reached at jason.chiu@ubc.ca or 604-822-0082.
Timber Building Tour to Italy, Austria and Germany - November-December 2015
CAWP is pleased to announce that it will again lead a technical tour to Europe for wood products manufacturers interested in advanced timber construction and passive house design. This year's tour will start in Milan, Italy on November 28th. The group will travel by motor coach through the Lake Garda region of northern Italy, into the Alps, and through Austria to the International Holzbau Forum, the world's largest conference on wood construction in Garmisch Partenkirschen, Germany. Following the conference participants will travel to Munich, where the tour will end on Saturday December 5th.
This year's tour is strongly oriented toward the interests of manufacturers of wood-based products for the non residential construction multi-family housing or passive housing sectors. We will visit the state of the art production facilities of several leading glulam, prefab home, CLT and passive home producers, and our group will have the opportunity to network with these companies and the industry associations through various lunch and evening events, as well as at the conference itself. The Holzbau conference features five parallel tracks, ensuring that everyone in attendance can hear the presentations that are most relevant to their own business. Accommodation throughout the tour is in comfortable, centrally-located hotels, including a resort hotel at Lake Garda that is an exemplary case of CLT and glulam use. The group will be accompanied by guides from CAWP, UNBC and the Canadian Trade Commission.
As the group size is limited to 20 people, please contact us as soon as possible if interested in coming along. More information can be found at:
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| Industry News | Cost-shared funding available for Marketing Assessments & Projects for value-added wood product manufacturers
Do you have difficulty understanding marketing and communicating your company's benefits? Discover how to effectively communicate your unique selling features and correctly position your company for your target audiences.
A Marketing Assessment reviews and evaluates all your marketing activities and provides recommendations for fine-tuning your strategy to achieve your business goals. Working with a dedicated marketing consultant, you will receive:
- Expert marketing advice at a fraction of the cost
- A comprehensive report of your branding, positioning, target audiences and marketing activities
- Recommended changes to improve your marketing efforts
- New ideas to stretch your marketing dollars
- Simple changes to strengthen your brand and better position you against competitors
Marketing Projects:
Through the Wood First program, you may be also be eligible for additional support with your specific marketing projects. Aimed at developing your marketing skills, these projects may include branding, training, strategic planning, or project specific consultation. For more information, please contact Rumin Mann at rmann@bcwood.com or 604-882-7100.
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Industry News - CAWP Update
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UBC - CAWP: Management Skills Training Courses
UBC - Centre for Advanced Wood Processing (CAWP) will be offering three online courses: Safety & Human Resources Management, Supply Chain Management, and Factory Planning and Equipment Justification starting November 2 - December 14, 2015. Each module requires about 5 hrs of study per week for 6 weeks. The courses were designed specifically for the wood products industry and the content is based on case studies from the various sub-sectors. These wood products industry specific courses are designed for owners, manager, 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.
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Industry News
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 Supply Chain Workshop
Date: Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Time: 2:30pm-5:00pm
Location: Anvil Center - 777 Columbia St., New Westminster, BC
What you will learn:- Types of supply chain models
- Evaluation methods employed
- How to become a qualified source of supply
For more information or to register, click here |
Spotlight: Permanent Pole
| Rumin Mann
Langley, BC based Permanent Pole was established in 1983. They manufacture a wide range of heavy timber products and custom hardware used in professionally designed high-end building projects in which exposed timber is usually selected for aesthetics and as structural support.
They are focused on providing unique, innovative, and high quality products that will express the dramatic beauty of large scale exposed timber. This is achieved by manufacturing fully prefabricated timber components and related connectors so that field crews in normal site conditions may construct structures without undue skills or tools. Their unique capabilities have also made them a key resource for architects, engineers, contractors, and builders for aesthetically pleasing innovative design concepts in the early stages of building projects. Their care and attention to low volume, high value wood products with minimal waste highlights their focus on ensuring the sustainability of BC's forests.
They supply both timber products and their connecting hardware or other metal components. Hardware may be galvanized, or painted with good quality coatings, or powder coated. Advantages of combined timber and hardware supply include more simplified and consistent design, elimination of discrepancies between unrelated suppliers, improved installation methods and costs, and more systematic designs.
Permanent Pole does lathe turning to approximately 30" (75cm) diameter and length of 50' (15m). Turning is available in cylindrical, tapered, multi-tapered, barrel-shaped, or patterned form. They provide capabilities for controlled framing for notches, grooves, blind or through slots, deep pockets, small and large holes, tapered shapes, polygonal flats, circular segments, and other cuts. They also provide band-sawing to a 36" (90cm) face and to plus 40' (12m) lengths. Other services include finishing, kiln-drying, and pre-fitting of connectors.
Owner, Art Paul, is retiring soon and is looking for someone passionate about wood to take over the company and take it to new heights. If you are interested in this incredible opportunity, please give Art a call at 604-534-55911. For more information, visit their website: www.permanentpole.com |
Specifiers Program Update
| Roy Manion
Autumn is here and one of its signs is that the Specifiers program is in full swing and we expect it to continue that way through to the Christmas break. LUNCH & LEARN SESSIONS The past couple of weeks have seen the program organize, conduct, and book over a dozen lunch & learn sessions. Our October calendar is fully booked and we are now booking sessions well into November. All of the sessions consist of specific products or sectors with the actual presentations being done by industry personnel in both 30 and 60 minute formats. TRADE SHOWS
 As many of you know, this is a busy time of year for trade shows, certainly in the Vancouver area. In late September, we participated in a couple of shows: the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM), where we met with government officials from all over the province promoting among other issues, the Wood First Act. The day after the UBCM, the IDSWest Trade Show began. BC Wood was joined by companies from industry in a BC Wood "Island". Attendance at both shows was excellent and both BC Wood and its members had good shows. At the end of the month, we will be participating in the Wood Solutions Fair and the Architectural Institute of BC's annual conference where architects from all over the province will gather for 2 days to attend seminars and meet with a number of exhibitors. FACTORY TOURS We organized a number of factory tours for architects and designers in the Spring and enjoyed excellent attendance and participation. After taking the Summer off, we are now back in the planning stages for 2 or 3 factory tours. As always, should you wish additional information on any of the foregoing, or require information on the Specifiers Program, please contact me at rmanion@bcwood.com or call me at the office. I would be pleased to discuss it with you. |
2015 Global Buyers Mission™ (GBM) Review
| Randi Walker
The 12th Annual Global Buyers Mission™ (GBM), held September 10th to 12th, 2015 welcomed almost 800 delegates to Whistler this year. Once again, we had perfect weather and conditions to welcome delegates that joined us from all over the world. For the first time in many years, the GBM hosted more American buyers than those from any other market. We are pleased to see the resurgence in demand from the US. We anticipate a significant increase in new sales from contacts made at the GBM this year.  Many thanks must go to our funding Partners who without their continued support, we would not be able to deliver this world class event: Natural Resources Canada Emerging Markets Opportunities Program, Forestry Innovation Investment Ltd. (FII) and Foreign Affairs, Trade & Development Canada (DFATD). Our main Corporate Sponsors this year included The Waldun Group,Terminal Forest Products, Export Development Canada (EDC), the Consulate General of Canada-Seattle, Livingston International, Interfor, Surrey Cedar, Glandell, BFL Insurance and Bigfoot Manufacturing. CEO Brian Hawrysh and Board President John Gillis welcomed our Opening Ceremony guest speaker, the Honourable Minister of Forests, Lands & Natural Resources, Mr. Steve Thomson, who then officially opened the 12th Annual GBM. Registered international buyers came from Australia, China, Japan, India, the United States, France, Malaysia, Korea, Jordan, the Philippines, Taiwan, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Mexico, Belgium, Qatar, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Germany, and Vietnam. Many thanks must go to the Trade Commissioner service from a number of international markets that greatly assisted with our qualified buyer recruiting again this year. We were pleased that most of our buyers were new to the GBM this year, offering excellent opportunities for Canadian manufacturers to build new business opportunities.
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| BC Wood's Winter Trade show program heats up! |
Brian Hawrysh With the GBM and a busy September schedule behind us, BC Wood's fall/winter trade show programs start to gear up. The next four months are always BC Wood's busiest time for trade shows. This year is no different with five different trade show programs from November through to late January. The fall and early winter schedule includes the following events: |
Wood Solutions Fair
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Vancouver, BC
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October 27th, 2015
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Japan Home Show
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Tokyo, Japan
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November 18th-20th, 2015
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Housing Brand Fair
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Seoul, South Korea
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January 14-17th, 2016
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International Builders Show
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Las Vegas, Nevada
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January 19th-21st, 2016
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BIA - Hawaii Expo & Mission
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Honolulu, Hawaii
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January 22-24th , 2016
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These trade shows are an opportunity for BC companies to get their products and services in front of potential customers from all over North America and Asia. Cost saving, and just as importantly, in-market support are available to BC Wood members. For more information regarding these events and those scheduled for February through to March, 2016, see "Trade Events" under the "Programs and Services" icon on BC Wood's website at www.bcwood.com or contact me directly at bhawrysh@bcwood.com. |
| USA Market Update | Dave Farley
A few comments, suggestions, and ideas..
It's time to start planning for the International Builders Show (IBS) which takes place mid January in Las Vegas, Nevada. IBS is part of the new North American "Construction Week" which combines the IBS, Kitchen and Bath (KBIS), and the flooring show, Surfaces, all in one place. IBS will draw over 100,000 industry professionals including builders, architects, distributors, and others to the three day event. BC Wood has once again secured excellent space in the central hall of the Las Vegas Convention center and will have a strong contingent of members showcasing products to their target audience. As of today, we have a couple of 10x10 spaces still available; however, they will go fast! So if this show sounds interesting to you, please get a hold of me quickly to secure your space.
 This past weekend, BC Wood held our first "Timberframe University" in Santa Clara, California with good success. The event is an educational seminar in which pre-qualified buyers are invited to participate in a full day workshop on the "nuts and bolts" of building your dream home. It is an interactive workshop where attendees get to see the world class timber, log, and pre-built houses that our members design and manufacture. Significant networking and question and answer opportunities were developed for both attendees and our panel of industry experts. The event was held in partnership with AIM media who are the publishers of the magazines, Log Home Living and Timber Home Living magazines. I will do a complete review of this event and discuss the opportunity for members to participate in the next Timberframe University in the next issue of the Wood Connections newsletter.  As always, please feel free to contact me at dfarley@bcwood.com for more info on the issues discussed above or on the US market in general. |
| Korea Market Update | |
Housing Brand Fair 2016
Jim Ivanoff
 BC Wood will be organizing a pavilion for members at the next Housing Brand Fair to be held from January 14th to 17th at very convenient COEX Exhibition Facility in Seoul's Gangnam district. The show's strong promotional backing and central location attracts most of the major players in Korea's wood and construction industries. 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.
On behalf of BC Wood members interested in attending the show, BC Wood's Korean Representative, JC Lee, has been negotiating with the show organizers to cover some of our members' travel costs for the show. JC has also arranged for a special rate at the InterContinental Hotel attached to the convention centre. For more information on this and the show, please contact Jim Ivanoff at ivanoff@canadawood.jp. |
| Japan Market Update | |
Nikkei Show 2016
Jim Ivanoff
BC Wood will once again be coordinating the Canadian Pavilion at the Nikkei Architectural and Construction Materials Show that will be held at Tokyo's Big Sight from March 8th through 11th, 2016. With BC Wood's longstanding participation in the show, we have been able to secure 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. The show is a good fit for producers of cabinetry, millwork, house packages including log and timberframe, as well as lumber and remanufactured products. For more information on exhibiting or participating in this show, please e-mail me at ivanoff@canadawood.jp.
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Marketplace
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In this section, you can post for free anything from job listings (for employees looking for work, and employers looking for new staff), to machinery for sale/wanted, to a request for a particular type of wood or service. If you would like to include a posting in our Marketplace section, please email me at rmann@bcwood.com or call 604-882-7100 and ask for Rumin.
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| Upcoming Events |
October 27, 2015: Wood Solutions Fair, Vancouver, BC November 18-20, 2015: Japan Home and Building Show, Tokyo, Japan January 14-17, 2016: Housing Brand Fair, Seoul, Korea January 19-21, 2016: International Builders Show (IBS), Las Vegas, USA January 22-24, 2016: BIA - Hawaii Expo & Mission, Honolulu, USA For a list of all trade and industry events, please visit our |
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Sincerely,
Rumin Mann
BC Wood |
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