With a new year comes updates to our Value-to-Members Program. If your company is a BC Wood member, you are entitled to an array of cost-savings for regularly used services such as Sutton and Sandman hotels, Park n' Fly, and Enterprise/National car rentals. Once we receive your membership renewal, we will be sending you the updates and links, including a generous offer from Park n' Fly for a free two-day parking offer! For an updated list of suppliers, please contact Randi Walker  [email protected]  or Kit Crowe  [email protected].

To create and support good jobs in British Columbia's forest sector, government is investing $7.9 million to promote and grow markets for B.C. wood products at home and abroad .

Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, made the announcement in his opening remarks at the annual Council of Forest Industries conference.

"Advancing new products and markets for B.C.'s world-class wood products supports good jobs in over 140 communities throughout British Columbia," said Donaldson. "Advancing innovation in wood products and wood technology supports our strategy to maintain B.C. jobs in B.C.'s forest sector."

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The B.C. government will use its procurement powers on large public works projects, like the new $1.9 billion St. Paul's Hospital, to promote mass timber products, and tackle a shrinking timber supply, stumpage rates and other issues facing the B.C. forestry industry with a new renewal initiative.

Premier John Horgan told delegates at the Council of Forest Industries (COFI) convention in Vancouver Friday, April 4, that his government will try to help the industry do more with less.

The forest industry has long been known as a key driver in B.C.'s economy, but a new study reveals its economic impact is even more profound, in generating significant economic activity in all regions of the province including big cities, small towns and Indigenous communities.

The study, conducted by PwC for the B.C. Council of Forest Industries, assesses the industry's local economic impact in B.C.'s seven regions as defined by Statistics Canada: North Coast and Nechako, Northeast, Cariboo, Kootenay, Thompson-Okanagan, Mainland-Southwest and Vancouver Island-Coast.

Provincially, our forest industry drives 140,000 jobs - one out of every 17 jobs in the province. B.C. is home to 140 forestry-dependent communities with nearly 60,000 men and women directly employed in the industry, generating $8.6 billion in family-supporting wages. Another 80,000 jobs are supported through indirect and induced economic activity.

Slabs of immaculately hewn maple, walnut and arbutus await delivery in the loading bay at Duncan's Live Edge Design. Nearby, contemporary, resin-infused countertops are contrasted with the clean simplicity of a rustic dinning room table. All are works of art that infuse an otherwise nondescript industrial park with a sense of magic that lures visitors to ponder the inspiration and skilled craftsmanship at the heart of each piece.

"No tree is firewood in our eyes," says designer Stephanie Farrow. "No two pieces are the same, and I love working with the challenges of each piece."

Stephanie says it isn't uncommon for projects like these to start as a vague idea concealed in someone's mind or as a rudimentary napkin sketch. The exciting part of her work, Stephanie says, is helping clients transform their visions into the finished products that will occupy honoured places in homes and workplaces.

UBC - Online Management Skill Training Courses

Tecno Mueble Internacional, August 14th to 17th is celebrating 31 years of being the biggest fair of machinery, raw materials and accessories for the furniture and woodworking industry in Mexico.  The four-day event at Expo Guadalajara gathers exhibitors and buyers from Mexico, Estados Unidos, Canada, Brazil, Colombia, Italy, Spain, Turkey, China, France, Chile and Austria; including furniture manufacturers, architects, interior and industrial designers, wood distributors and contractors.

BC Wood will have a joint booth at the show with the Consulate of Canada in Guadalajara. We will have your company/product information and samples in the booth, staffed full time to handle questions and collect business inquiries. When not in pre-set trade mission meetings, you will have a number of opportunities to meet visitors at the booth.

BC Wood's goal is to connect you with qualified buyers in Mexico throughout the week August 11th to 17th.  The trade mission component focuses on business-to-business meetings, usually at the buyer's office/facilities. Customized, pre-qualified meetings will be made to target the best potential customers for your products in Guadalajara. A driver and interpreter will be arranged for all your on-site meetings.

For more information, please contact Ken Hori at 604-882-7100 or [email protected].

 

IDS Vancouver attracts 38,500+ attendees over 3.5 days at the Vancouver Convention Centre West. This includes 7,050 guests to the Party on Opening Night; 7,500 designers, architects, buyers, builders/developers and other industry professionals during Trade Day; and an additional 24,000 consumers interested in design, on the weekend.

7,500 designers, architects, buyers/developers and other industry professionals attend Trade Day for free. 24,000 avid design enthusiasts visit IDS Vancouver to source design products and services.

IDS Vancouver is a high-profile event that sells out quickly. With only limited space available, BC Wood's organizational efforts need to start now.  BC Wood has booked an island booth and invite member companies to join us.

For more on rates and information, please contact Ken Hori at 604-882-7100 or [email protected].

A few comments, suggestions, and ideas...

 

With Spring's arrival here in the lower mainland, it signals BC Wood's new fiscal year. An excellent time to look at your market development needs and how we can assist you in reaching these goals.  I thought we would review a couple of programs that we have coming up to see if they are a fit for your company.

 

PCBC 2019
This event takes place May 29 -31 in San Francisco California.  Like its counter part, International Builders Show (IBS 19), PCBC is a tradeshow that targets both the residential and multi-family construction sector. The difference is while IBS is massive, PCBC is a smaller regional event, specifically focused on builders, developers and architects from the West Coast of the United States. This show provides a solid opportunity to meet a targeted group of buyers, specifiers, and decision makers from Pacific Northwest, California, the Southwest and Mountain States. If the West Coast residential and multi-family sector is a target market, then you should seriously consider attending PCBC. BC Wood will have a coordinated Wood Products Pavilion at the event this year and BC Industry are welcome to stop by the display.

 

AIA Conference on Architecture 2019

Immediately following PCBC, we cross the Sierra Nevada's to participate in another key trade event which targets a select but important influencer, the architect. BC Wood and industry will be at the AIA Conference on Architecture 2019(A'19) annual conference and trade event June 6-8 in Las Vegas, Nevada. This event draws over 30,000 architects, designers and specifiers from across North America. The event differs from many other events in that nearly all the attendees come to AIA to help get the educational credits required to continue as a practicing architect. As with PCBC, we will have a coordinated Wood pavilion at AIA and are currently planning a networking event as well. 

If either of these two events are of interest to your firm, please reach out to me at [email protected] or on my cell at 604-728-8786.   Space is very limited for both events at this time, so please contact me ASAP.

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 Kit.