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If you have not yet been featured in our Spotlight section and would like to be, please email me at
[email protected]
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!
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eel free to send me news stories that you think our readers would be interested in. You can email them to
[email protected]
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| Industry News |
Brian Hawrysh
BC Wood just received confirmation of funding for our 2017-2018 market development activities. Last November, BC Wood's staff began the process with sector meetings that were intended to gather input on Industry's marketing priorities. BC Wood took this input and put together a comprehensive package of market development activities. The proposals that resulted were submitted in mid-December to both Federal and Provincial funders for review and eventual approval.
The BC based tradeshows are yet to be officially approved, however, it is expected that they will be shortly. The balance of the proposed activities focus on expanding market share in the United States, while maintaining the hard won presence that we have gained in the Asian markets.
Recognizing the on-going need to explore new and emerging markets, BC Wood has also scheduled missions and participation in trade shows in Mexico in August, 2017 and October, 2017. The Global Buyers Mission, our 15th, will be a highlight, with over 300 buyers coming to Whistler in early September.
I would like to recognize and thank the staff of BC Wood for the extra effort they put towards writing these funding proposals as well as the Industry representatives that provided their own input. The result was that BC Wood has another strong program of approved trade event activities for 2017-2018.
For those of you wanting to see the updated list of trade show activities,
click here.
Any comments or questions regarding these planned activities can be directed to me at
[email protected] or by calling our office at 604-882-7100.
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| Industry News |
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International Sustainable Building Congress 2017 in Costa Rica, May 25-27
The Green Building Council Costa Rica is organizing the International Sustainable Building Congress 2017 (CICS) in San Jose, Costa Rica, May 25th-27th, 2017.
The theme of this year's conference is "Habitat and Sustainable Cities: success stories". The program incorporates lively plenary sessions, as well as engaging workshops and training sessions dedicated to identifying the DNA of sustainable cities. The main objective for the CICS 2017 is to showcase the best practices, taking stock of lessons learned, forging partnerships and enhancing agreements to continue advancing on the sustainable path. To strengthen the market transformation, the event brings together the Green Expo and the innovation of "Green B2B meetings" for sustainable building.
There is opportunity for you to attend this conference or to participate as a speaker in a Plenary Session: Market Innovation - Products, materials, systems, and financial (May 25th morning plenary).
If you are interested in attending, speaking, or have questions, please contact Ken Hori at BC Wood: [email protected] Tel: 604-882-7100.
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| Industry News |
BC Wood hits home run at wood design forum
Tree Frog News - February 27, 2017
 In a venue known for celebrating creativity, BC Wood hosted "Gray Conversations: A Living with Wood Forum" at the Museum of Vancouver as part of the first ever WOOD WEEK BC. The sold-out event was an inspirational tribute to wood use in architecture and design. The evening began with a tactile display of a unique wood stools designed by students from the Emily Carr University of Art + Design. While servers paraded tasty treats served on Douglas-fir slabs, guests were encouraged to vote for their favourite student design team. The highlight of the evening was the panel of Pacific Northwest designers. Run as a Q&A, moderator Jamie Gillin asked a series of questions that resulted in animated and passionate discussion amongst the participants.
The highlight of the evening was the panel of Pacific Northwest designers. Run as a Q&A, moderator Jamie Gillin asked a series of questions that resulted in animated and passionate discussion amongst the participants. As Director of Editorial and Content Strategy at GRAY Magazine, Jamie is well versed in the influence of wood in this realm. The panelists were Brent Comber (Artis-Designer, Brent Comber), Javier Campos (Architect, Campos Studio), Gail Guevara (Interior Designers, Gaile Guevara Studio), and Brent (Branch) Freedman (Furniture Designer, Gamla Studio).
Although their relationship to the medium varies considerable, their passion for wood was constant and potent. Asked to tell us their "favourite wood" - and why they love it, their answers demonstrated their personal diversity, while proving that the natural beauty and spirit of wood is a unifying force in today's design community. And rather than the all too common PowerPoint presentations we are accustomed to, it was a treat to enjoy a performance focused on facial expressions, hand gestures, heart-felt commentary and conversation.
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| Industry News |
Government of BC - March 15, 2017
An update to the BC Building Code will require fire sprinklers to be installed on the balconies of all new four-storey wood-frame residential buildings.
Under the current BC Building Code, sprinklers generally are not required on balconies or in attics in residential buildings four storeys and under, but are generally required in residential buildings greater than four storeys.
The updated 2015 National Building Code, on which BC Building Code updates are based, requires sprinklers on balconies of four-storey residential buildings. Although the next edition of the BC Building Code is not scheduled to be adopted until late 2017, the Province is taking steps to adopt the new sprinkler standards sooner.
The new sprinkler requirements will take effect on July 20, 2017. The Province is providing a transition period to allow time for the industry to adapt to the new requirement. Building codes and fire sprinkler standards apply at the time of construction and do not apply retroactively to require owners to upgrade existing buildings.
Click here to read the entire article
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| Industry News |
Journal of Commerce- March 27, 2017
 StructureCraft Builders Corporation is building a 50,000-square-foot, all-wood facility in Abbotsford, B.C. to manufacture dowel laminated timber (DLT). DLT is made entirely from softwood and hardwood with no metal, glue or plastic.
"We expect the plant to be completed by the end of summer 2017 and the first DLT to be available for sale in January 2018," said Lucas Epp, StructureCraft's head of engineering.He said his company will be the first manufacturer of DLT in North America.
DLT panels have all the wood fibre going in a single direction and use dowelling patterns instead of nails or layers of glue.The panels can be used for floor, wall and roof structures.Epp said DLT is less expensive than glued products to manufacture. The bright idea to use hardwood dowels to connect softwood boards was conceived in Switzerland in the 1990s. Today there are about 20 DLT manufacturers in Europe, most of them in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Click here to read the entire article
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Specifiers Program Update
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Roy Manion
Since our last Wood Connections edition just a month ago, the Program's events included:
- Lunch & Learn Sessions
- Living with Wood Design Forum at the Museum of Vancouver
- Wood Design & Construction Solutions Conference
- Wood Designs Awards that BC Wood attended
- Putting final touches on an upcoming factory tour scheduled for March 31st
Lunch & Learn Sessions
We organized and held a series of 5 Lunch & Learn sessions and booked another 3; 2 of which are for April.
Gray Conversations: Living with Wood Design Forum
This was a great event held at the Museum of Vancouver and was part of Wood Week. I am sure you will read more about this from other Wood Connections contributors. Our part was to have the event approved by both the architect and interior designer associations so all attending architects and interior designers received their educational credits.
Wood Design & Construction Solutions Conference
This was another event in Wood Week. It was formerly named the "Wood Solutions Fair" which lasted 1 day and consisted of both seminars for professionals and a trade show. This year as part of Wood Week, the event was renamed and expanded to 2 days. BC Wood played an active role in this Wood WORKS! BC organized event in that BC Wood, accompanied by several companies from industry, exhibited on the trade show floor. We also arranged for 5 speakers to participate in a "Non-Structural" speaker stream for day 2. I am pleased to report that each of these speakers were outstanding and did our sector proud.
Wood Designs Awards Dinner
This is an annual event organized by our sister association Wood WORKS! BC. Once again, it was a great evening seeing the many candidates for various awards. Now that wood has become such a prominent media in design and construction of all types of projects, each nominated design for the various awards were amazing. BC Wood had a table at this event and we were pleased to have 6 architects join us, including John Patkau who won an award for the Audain Museum. All around, it was a great evening.
Upcoming Factory Tour
BC Wood is organizing its last event of our current fiscal year: a factory tour scheduled for March 31st at a millwork facility in Sidney, BC. As with all events we organize, we received approval for educational credits for architects. We are still awaiting approval for interior designer educational credits but expect to receive that shortly. This will be our second event at this facility as the first one was so successful; we are building this event on it.
Going Forward!
Beginning April 1st, BC Wood's new fiscal year begins (for those who may not know, this is the same timetable as both Federal and Provincial Governments). This means that once we tie up loose ends on our current fiscal year, we will be talking to companies about participating in the Specifier Program for the 2017 - 2018 fiscal year. If you are interested and wish to be involved, please let me know by calling the office or emailing me at
[email protected]
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USA Market Update
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Dave Farley
A few comments, suggestions, and ideas for the industry..
This past week, BC Wood organized and delivered the 4th annual Product Knowledge Workshops in the Pacific Northwest. Five member companies participated in the three-day event in the key markets of Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland. The premise of the workshops is to connect BC Industry to the architectural community working throughout the Pacific Northwest. Member companies delivered a coordinated series of educational seminars and Lunch and Learns to over 70 architects and specifiers in these three centres.
The events were well attended and received and provided members the opportunity to educate potential buyers on the benefits of working with BC manufacturers. Of interest is the sales approach of members at these events. Selling to the architect is different than selling to a builder or distributor. The more successful presentations had two things in common: they inspired and they provided solutions. Inspiration came through a well-thought-out educational narrative via high-quality visual images showcasing the product in a variety of applications. Providing solutions came through focusing on a few projects that highlighted the members' products in a real-world application. Presenting to a knowledgeable and educated group such as architects is not easy and takes considerable forethought and practice. The end result should lead to increased opportunity and sales for member companies.
Overall, the Product Knowledge Workshops were successful in connecting BC Industry to key buyers and decision makers in the Pacific Northwest.
If you are interested in participating in these types of events in the next year, please feel free to contact me at
[email protected].
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| Japan Market Update |
Nikkei Architectural and Construction Materials Show 2017
Jim Ivanoff
From March 7th through 10th, BC Wood participated in Nikkei Messe at Tokyo Big Sight. Each year, this show represents the largest gathering of construction industry professionals in Japan taking up all of Big Sight's 10 halls, but it expanded for 2017 by also utilizing the recently completed two new halls in the east wing. As a result, the section of Nikkei Messe that BC Wood exhibits in, the Architectural & Construction Materials Show, was able to expand this year to cover over two full halls. The quality of the exhibitions throughout Nikkei Messe is also improving every year.
As usual, BC Wood organized the Canadian pavilion on behalf of our industry and included our Canada Wood partners from Canada Tsuga and the APA in addition to our member companies. We maintained the same overall design theme but refreshed our WRC display which gathered a great deal of positive feedback. BC Wood has long enjoyed priority access in booking space for this event, so we were able to have a prime location on the intersection of the two main aisles running through the show. Other country pavilions were not as lucky and had to settle for tighter quarters as the show was overbooked.
BC Wood also organized several evening events to further promote our industry and members during the week. On the first night of the show, the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo hosted the "Canadian Innovation in Building" seminar for us. We recruited participants through our contact database and the Embassy was thrilled to have 125 professionals involved with large wood construction attend. The topic of greatest interest to the attendees was the 18 storey Brock Commons project at UBC.
We followed this talk up a few nights later at the BC Wood office in Ebisu by hosting a casual discussion with the Timberize organization. This group was the pioneer in promoting the concept of using timber buildings in Japan's urban areas and is led by a Tokyo University professor who is one of the leading wood design experts in Japan. Both the Canadian and Japanese sides gave presentations about mass timber projects and exchanged ideas on how to develop this market further in Japan. Toward the end of the evening, we took the group for a walk along the nearby Log Road development so they could see the beauty of WRC.
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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
[email protected]
or call 604-882-7100 and ask for Rumin.
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| Upcoming Events |
March 28-31, 2017: Interzum, Guangzhou, China
May 21-24, 2017: International Contemporary Furniture Fair, New York, US
July 2017: AFN - Circle of Trade, Manitoba, Canada
July 2017: Reform & Renovation Expo, Tokyo, 2017
August 16-19, 2017: Techno Mueble Expo, Guadalajara, Mexico
September 7-9, 2017: Global Buyers Mission, Whistler, Canada
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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