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Up With Forest Expo

Exhibitor numbers are already up for Prince George's Forest Expo, to be held this May

By Jim Stirling

Statistics can be used to tell any story, but the preliminary figures from Prince George's Forest Expo lead to an inevitable conclusion: Canada's top forestry show is a hot ticket in 2000. More than 40 per cent of Forest Expo has already been sold out in the first two months of offering booth space. The number of exhibitors is up by 12 compared with the corresponding period leading up to the last biennial show in 1998. And the number of booth spaces sold is up by 54 or six per cent. What the numbers indicate is a strong interest in participating in Forest Expo 2000, which will be held at Exhibition Park in Prince George, BC from May 11 to 13. Those exhibitors who have discovered that Forest Expo is the go to place for serious business prospects are being joined by new faces who want their share of the action. The figures illustrate that exhibitors are requesting more space to display and demonstrate the forest industry's latest equipment, technology and innovation. It should be remembered that the comparison with Forest Expo 98 is a measurement against a record-breaking event.

That year Forest Expo verified its reputation on the world's forestry show stage by attracting 22,805 people and 444 exhibitors representing 789 booth spaces sold. The early response to Forest Expo 2000 is also significant within the context of the forest industry's overall health. In BC, high operating costs continue to trigger restructuring and consolidation in the industry. And Canada's softwood lumber producing provinces have their own views on what if any kind of formal deal should be negotiated with the Americans-in this their election year-governing lumber volumes exported into the US. But business must go on despite the range, complexity and influence of external factors around the world. And Forest Expo has proven it's good at creating the right atmosphere for qualified buyers to make a deal with the best suppliers of forest industry equipment and services. Forest Expo has maintained a dual role in that it is also a vehicle for public education about the forest industry. It encourages the public to visit the show and provides information that helps demystify the forest industry and provide the straight facts on how it goes about its business. Trudy Swaan is Forest Expo's general manager who, along with her staff, takes direction from the show's board of directors. These are volunteers who care about the forest industry, drawn from throughout the community.

The figures illustrate that exhibitors are requesting more space to display and demonstrate the forest industry's latest equipment, technology and innovation.

Chairman for Forest Expo 2000 is Curt Wallach, branch manager for Coast Tractor & Equipment Ltd. in Prince George. The Forest Expo board has allocated $25,000 for a millennium project at the Railway and Forestry Museum in Prince George. Swaan says the money will most likely be used to refurbish a building at the museum site so it can be developed into a forestry archive building. "The Railway and Forestry Museum is an under appreciated resource that is especially valuable for tourists and the Forest Expo board is proud to be part of it," she adds. For further information on Forest Expo 2000, including registration details, visit the show's web site at www.forestexpo. bc.ca. or call (250) 563-8833

This page last modified on Monday, November 03, 2003