Timber Expo is major showcase for the UK

Timber means many things to many people. A piece of wood can travel thousands of miles through many hands to become a tactile, beautiful object or a workmanlike joist or beam.

Whatever the origins, the timber supply chain (including forestry) comprises a vast number of operations. Valued by the Office of National Statistics at over £7.6bn, the wood industries and forestry combined comprise the fifth largest industry in the UK.

Yet despite its size and influence, the timber industry in the UK has been surprisingly reticent in claiming its place in construction. Wood has been used by man for an enormous variety of purposes since prehistoric times. It can be used in conjunction with many other materials and can be found in every aspect of a building. Its inherent properties ensure good thermal and acoustic performance and, if correctly specified and designed, wood and engineered wood products provide strength where needed, as well as offering inspiration for design. As the world’s only truly renewable construction material it has a unique place in the built environment of the future.

In many other countries there is a major exhibition dedicated to timber, yet not here in the UK, a country which, in spite of a significant forestry sector of its own, still imports almost 90% of the timber and wood products it consumes.

Timber Expo, to take place in September 2011, will fill that gap and, with the support of the timber industry, it will provide the showcase that the sector has been missing. Backed by TRADA Technology, the two-day event is designed to become the most important timber event in the construction calendar.

Ambitious talk perhaps, but Timber Expo will be different in several significant ways from what has been on offer to timber suppliers, manufacturers and distributors in the past. It will allow new products and ideas to be showcased alongside a range of conference, seminar and promotional activities, making it an efficient way to learn and a forum for business. It will raise the profile of timber, gathering together forward-thinking companies, timber commentators and business leaders from across the sector, linking suppliers with specifiers and end users.

Potential exhibitors are not being asked to take Timber Expo on trust, however.

We recognise that in good times and in bad, companies have a finite marketing budget. Taking part in any show involves a commitment of time and money which must be wisely spent.

We are therefore staging a unique launch event at the show venue, the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, one year ahead of the event itself. This will allow companies to make an informed judgement on their participation and also help us to shape the event. It will give potential exhibitors the opportunity to tour the facilities and exhibition halls, to discuss content, feed in ideas and, importantly, find out how to make their investment work hard for them.

Quite simply, like nothing which has gone before, Timber Expo offers the timber industry the opportunity, as a cohesive voice, to make a real impact.

? To attend the launch event on September 29 or find out more about the show, visit www.timber-expo.co.uk or email Loretta Sales at loretta.sales@timber-expo.co.uk.