AUSTimber2016 event hailed a successFriday 22 Apr 2016
With 25 years under his belt attending forest expos around the world, former MD of Komatsu Forests in Australia, Mike Jones, said he had not seen a better prepared site anywhere else – a sentiment echoed by Phyllis Pearce, Marketing Coordinator/Event Planner for Caterpillar Forest Products based in North Carolina and a regular at forestry equipment exhibitions around the world. A number of exhibitors reported sales being made at the event and healthy prospect lists for later follow up. A few have already put their name down for 2020 while one truck manufacturer who did not exhibit has since contacted the organisers to ask to be added to the list of prospects for the next time. “The forest site delivered by our sponsor and partner, HVP, was a credit to that organisation and its Gippsland team.”, said Laurie Martin, GM of AUSTimber2016. “It was a real pleasure dealing with site logistics manager, Travis Healey, who not only got what we were looking for when it came to presenting the best possible face for the industry and delivering sites for exhibitors that gave them the best opportunity to demonstrate their gear but often made suggestions or recommendations that further enhanced the overall visitor experience.” Latrobe City, the event’s other major sponsor and partner also took their role a step further when, after discussions with the AUSTimber2016 organisers at the time they were considering locations for the event, decided to adopt Australasia’s first Wood Encouragement policy. “Not only did they adopt their WE policy and commit the resources of the city’s Events team to assisting us stage the event, they went the extra mile and spent considerable effort recruiting more local government areas around the country to the cause of encouraging local economic activity based on wood fibre.” A seminar at the Manufacturing Expo site in Traralgon for local government representatives concentrated on the new National Construction Code coming into effect in Australia in May that simplifies the process for wooden buildings up to 25 metres tall was well attended. “It gave us the opportunity to put the economic case for wooden buildings while pointing out the need for governments to take a firm stand with public money and insist on timber construction for public buildings that can serve as reference sites.” “As a result of this seminar, we are following up on a couple of potential projects that have been stymied by bureaucratic hurdles at the state government level and hoping to bring the resources of the timber industry into play to encourage reassessment of how public funds are being spent.” The owners of the AUSTimber event, the Australian Forest Contractors Association, are keen for the event to present a whole of industry face to the public while, at the same time, bringing new technology and systems to industry. “Our team invested considerable time and effort in building the manufacturing/processing component of the event and believe we made some progress with AUSTimber2016 but we still have some way to go when it comes to the secondary and tertiary sectors embracing the opportunity this event offers. We believe we have put in place a solid base with our efforts to build the adoption of Wood Encouragement policies at local government level but now need the manufacturing industry to take the next steps to demonstrate to the general public the possibilities the industry offers while discussing new technologies and systems the industry can adopt to improve productivity.” “How we do that will be a key focus in the next four years but one thing is certain, we have to find a way to bring the rest of the supply chain into the event or the industry will continue to miss the chance to fully capitalise on the publicity opportunity our World-Class forest Expo brings to the table.” | ||
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