Expo provides a shop window

Now in our fourth year, Timber Expo is ready to welcome a record number of visitors in 2014 - more than 5,000 visitors are expected to attend. The show is co-located with woodworking machinery show W14, so Birmingham NEC will be the only place to be in the first week of October if you want to see the latest products, innovations and developments from almost 200 companies across the timber sector.

And not just from the UK but from an increasingly exciting and diverse international market, with over 20 countries participating, including Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ghana, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Malaysia, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland and the US.

If you want to learn first-hand from industry experts, the Timber Focus seminar programme offers an unrivalled group of high-calibre speakers focusing on future trends and niche areas. Revamped by TRADA for 2014 with an extra emphasis on case studies and real life examples of timber in action, this is a key element to the show and a central part of the Timber Expo experience. The Timber Focus seminar programme is free and takes in all sectors of the built environment.

This year we have a new stream - Resource: Directors' Briefings. Aimed mainly at timber industry leaders and executives, these short, concise updates will cover strategy and policy areas affecting timber business.

Popular and well-received last year, Toolbox Talks returns with an impressive roster of new participants.

The Toolbox Talks workshop programme provides direct access and information on the latest timber processes, technologies and specialist products. These free professional development presentations will focus on the detail of processes, technologies and solutions on display at the show.

From manufacturing processes to onsite engineering solutions, Toolbox Talks will complement the Timber Focus sessions. These are expected to be extremely popular, so make sure you get there early.

The Timber Buyers & Specifiers Forum provides the opportunity to network with industry innovators and leaders within the timber sector to form key associations and partnerships. Sponsored by Vandecasteele, these 30-minute appointment sessions (over 300 across two days) are acknowledged as one of the most successful parts of the show, giving attendees a perfect way to build business relationships in the formal but relaxed environment of the Forum lounge.

There will be several landmark features at this year's show. For example, make sure you spot Fingers Crossed - built from 9mm birch plywood and supplied by TRADA member Hanson Plywood. Fingers Crossed is best described as a series of interlocking teeth - like giant timber combs - and is designed to exploit and celebrate the material behaviour of wood, relying solely on friction, rather than metal connections, as a joining solution.

Two bespoke Timber Focus seminar theatres will be built. One in timber frame by members of the Structural Timber Association and the other in cross-laminated timber by the X-LAM Alliance. The VIP Lounge and Media Centre are being built by EcoCurves once again and will feature magnificent bespoke glulam arches.

At the centre of the exhibition hall will be a scale model with 30,000 jigsaw pieces that will be an exact replica of what is going to be the largest timber sculpture in the world - Slipstream Sculpture. The complex architectural challenges of turning a simple idea - solidifying the motion of an aircraft in a vast kit of jigsaw pieces - will be explained in full by Ralph Parker, architect at Price & Myers, in the Timber Focus presentation Heathrow T2: the world's largest timber sculpture at 11.30am on Wednesday October 7.

TTJ Innovation Awards
Timber Expo is sponsoring the TTJ Innovation Award again this year and the winners of the Innovative Market Development category and Innovative Product Development category will be presenting on their success story in the Timber Focus programme on Thursday October 8.