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his is not your father's trade show. No elegant resorts. No golf toumaments. No banquets. No spouses' programs. And, best of all, no disgruntled exhibitors, hands in their pockets, grumbling about the slow floor traffic.

After just two years, the North American Wholesale Lumber Association's annual Traders Market has become arguably the hottest show in the industry, a hit for both attendees and exhibitors. The accent here is on tra.de not show.

The no-nonsense, no-frills market is perhaps the lumber industry's purest attempt yet at getting back to basics, a business function where people actually do business. "It's the best show we participate in. Period," says exhibitor EJ. Langley, Anthony Forest Products Co., El Dorado, Ar. "It's not a 'play' show; they don't have a golf tournament. It's a working show, short and strictly business."

"In 43 years in the lumber business, this is the best show I've seen," adds Willie Goyne, Gulf Lumber Co., Mobile, Al. Its reputation continues to grow due to "word of mouth," he says. "I tell everyone they should go."

Attendees agree. "It's the association event of the year," says Doyal Marks, Marks Forest Products Co., Birmingham, Al. "It provides a tremendous opportunity for traders to network."

A Show for the Truders

The idea grew out of a NAWLA strategic planning committee meeting held in Chicago in 1994. Interaction between manufacturers and wholesalers was promoted during the popular contact sessions at NAWLA's annual meeting each spring; the only problem was that typically the attendees were owners and other executives, not the employees doing the actual trading.

Suppliers would say that it was great to meet the ceo-he just didn't return to the office and tell the trader to give them a call.

According to Steve Killgore, Willamette Industries, Albany, Or.: "NAWLA as an organization is always trying to bring value to its membership and has always promoted contact with manufacturers and industry vendors. Senior management would go to the annual meeting, but not sales managers or salespeople at the mills. It didn't have a trading floor atmosphere."

So, NAWLA decided to spin off and expand the contact session into a separate show "for the guys who really make it happen," Killgore explains.

"Usually the owner goes to the trade shows, but the owner doesn't know the (vendor's) salespeople. For him, it's usually a vacation," adds Goyne. "But the guy who attends this show is the guy who actually issues purchase orders. They aren't just walking the floor; these people are on a mission."

What NAWLA didn't want to do.

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$soffidBonfi205 according to Steve Snavely, Snavely Forest Products, Pittsburgh. Pa.. was to "cobble a show together just for the sake of having a show."

One goal would be to keep it convenient and affordable. The association wanted to hold the Traders Market in a centrally located "hub" city for a major airline that offered a reasonable climate in the fall, to separate it by six months from the annual meeting. The choices were Denver, Chicago and Dallas. Dallas was selected as the most affordable. most accessible site.

Registration rates would be kept below 9200 and hotel rooms under $100. "lt's economical enough so that you can justify a six-month, one-year, or l0-year buyer being there," says Doug Honholt, Universal Forest Products, Inc., Grand Rapids, Mi.

For further convenience, the show has been held at an airport hotel. "It's easy to get in, easy to get out," Anthony's Langley explains. "Most people can get a direct flight from their hometown. It's easier to get to than some resort on a beach."

The show is not held during the middle of the week, ensuring more affordable room rates and airfares (by meeting the common Saturday night stay requirement) and not taking away precious selling time in the office or field. "Because it's a weekend, managers will encourage rather than discourage their traders to attend," explains Tom

Tomjack,

North

Lumber Co., Portland, Or., who served as committee chairman for the first two NAWLA Traders Markets.

Pacific

It's equally affordable for suppliers. Exhibitors are limited to a single 8-ft. by lO-ft. space, allowing as many different suppliers as possible to participate-on an even playing field. "You don't want one manufacturer to dominate the show," explains Snavely, who served as NAWLA president during the market's first year. "A large producer with locations across North America has the same size booth as a small pine mill in Maine. Both booths have the same curb appeal. The booth can be inexpensive; how nice it looks doesn't marter. You don't need to build a big Taj Mahal and spend $4,000 hauling it down there."

Both suppliers and their customers see the market as an economical way to see each other. "It has enabled the wholesalers to cut down on their mill trips and accomplish more by spending less money and exposing more traders," says current NAWLA president Stephen Boyd, Manufacturers Reserve Supply, Irvington, N.J.

Attendees are limited to wholesaler distributors and pur- wholesaler-processors. N<l nonexhibiting primary manut'acturers are allowed on the floor. No manutacturers' representatives. No retailers. No buying cooperatives. No builders. No contractors.

"We make such a wide variety of patterns that typically a retailer can't take a whole truckload, so the wholesale distributor is our target customer," says Mark Junkins, McShan Lumber Co.. Inc., McShan, Al.

There are also more restrictions than at most other building material shows regarding who can exhibit, reserving the always-sold-out booth space for lumber, panel and engineered wood producers. The Traders Market does feature a few exhibitors selling services and companion products such wood treaters, prefinishers and hardware manufacturers. but the focus is clearly on wood.

"The rest of the shows are so diluted," Junkins says. "Most will have software vendors, trucking companies, even phone companies. NAWLA is so strict on who they allow in."

The handful of software companies allowed on the premises will have

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