TRADA Technology backs Award with Timber Expo

Summary
¦ Timber Expo and TRADA Technology are sponsoring this year’s TTJ Market Development Award.
¦ Structural engineer Ramboll won last year’s award.
¦ This year’s TTJ Awards take place on September 15 at London’s Grand Connaught Rooms.
¦ Timber Expo takes place on September 27-28 at Coventry’s Ricoh Arena.

Launched last year, the TTJ Market Development Award is designed to recognise companies that are pushing forward the boundaries of what is possible in timber.

For example, last year’s winner Ramboll, a multi-disciplinary structural engineering practice, was recognised by the Awards judges for its “ambition to convert major new building projects from structural steel or concrete to timber” – an ambition that resulted in projects such as the Norwich Open Academy.

Market development is at the very heart of TRADA Technology’s own future strategy – as its support for the new Timber Expo exhibition underlines – and we have been working closely with industry partners to find new ways of bringing their products to market, whether through testing, assessment or certification, and also via interactive technical seminars and exhibitions.

As a business, we have identified new entrants into the industry, pitched somewhere between the traditional supplier and the contractor. These specialist timber subcontractors, by shouldering the technical and design work for contractors, are creating new products and building systems and thus widening the specifier’s perception of timber as a versatile material for structural and interior design.

With this coming of age, the time is absolutely right for timber to have its own show. And if the growing list of exhibitors for Timber Expo is anything to go by, we can surely expect stunning and innovative entries for the TTJ Market Development Award, which we are now backing together.

This category is open to any company which on their own, or in partnership, has created a market or expanded on an existing market in any way, for example by:

? developing a new product;
? taking a product – such as cladding – and developing a ‘system’, providing materials, fittings, finishes and so on;
? improving the supply chain to better meet market needs;
? improving the breadth of offering – for example, manufacturing through to long-term maintenance;
? carrying out further testing or certification to create new outlets for existing products – for example, testing a security rated door for fire resistance;
? removing legislative obstacles or overcoming actual or perceived barriers to the use of timber.

More than an exhibition

With 100 exhibitors taking part, Timber Expo will be a showcase for everything that is new and exciting in timber. However, it is designed to be more than simply an exhibition.

It will also encompass TRADA’s inspirational In Touch with Timber conference, in a new format of four, half-day sessions, accommodating 1,000 delegates, as well as the Timber Buyers’ Forum, a unique feature of Timber Expo which maximises structured ‘face time’ between timber buyers and vendors.

Furthermore, the winners of the Wood Awards 2011 will be unveiled at the show, adding yet more value to the visitor’s day. In short, Timber Expo will be an event where visitors can be informed, inspired – and do business.

Exhibitions have awesome power as a sales and marketing tool. Even in this electronic age, there is no substitute for face-to-face contact with customers. There is no better way to profile new innovations and no better way for your customers of the future to engage with you.

Timber Expo offers a key springboard for launching innovative products into the market and for developing supply-chain collaboration. This many-faceted show will give out the clear message that timber has a unique place in the built environment of the future.

Timber Expo has been, from the outset, “for the industry, by the industry” and as an exciting newcomer to the construction calendar itself, it is fitting that it is sponsoring the TTJ Market Development Award.

This year’s TTJ Awards will be held at The Grand Hall, Grand Connaught Rooms, London on Thursday, September 15. The host and guest speaker is property developer and television presenter Sarah Beeny.

? For full details of the TTJ Market Development Award and an entry form, email jcarter@trada.co.uk or click here. The closing date for entries is July 29.

? For more information about Timber Expo click here