llnwn frqders Mqrket Exhibitors

tI hir lirt includes companies scheduled to exhibit at the 1998 NAWLA Traders Market and their booth numbers. Please double check the official directory at the event for any changes. Advertisers in this supplement are in bold.

Mary's River Lumber Co. I 2 I 3

McCausey Wood Products ...................6 I I

McShan Lumber Co.........................1102

Memphis Hardwood Flooring Co....... l0l3

Midwest Wood Treating..................... I 2 I 5

Mill River Lumber Ltd. ...........,............309

Norbord Industries.............................. I I 06

$n"tl" of tvents

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5:00 - 6:30 p.m. Earlybird Cocktail Party ftldl;l{or.6

8:30 - ll:30 a.m. "Power.Tools for Power Sales" (telephone sales seminar by Judy McKee)

I l:45 a.m. - l:00 p.m. All-Delegate Luncheon featuring keynote speaker Joe Griffith l:15 - 5:00 p.m. NAWLA Traders Market Open

5:00 - 6:30 p.m. Ice Breaker Reception

Sltrdltllou.7

8:00 - 9:15 a.m. Magellan Club Breakfast: "European Market Insighs" (optional intemational trade program by Eddie Pearce, Southem Pine Council, moderated by Bob Owens)

9:30 - I l:30 a.m. Educational Sessions

"A Peek Behind the Scenes at Crow's and Random Lengths" (featuring Dr. Sam Sherrill and Jon Anderson, moderated by Doyal Marks)

"second Place on the All-Time List (or Cross Currents in an Aging Economic Cycle)" (economic forecast by U.S. Bancorp chief economist John Mitchell)

I l:45 a.m. - l:30 p.m. Lunch Buffet Noon - 4100 p.m. NAWLA Traders Market Open

5:00

(Continuedfrom page TM 5) booths down the hall, off the main trading floor.

"At LAT (Lumbermens Association of Texas' annual convention), you have to go down two aisles before you see a lumber person," says Langley. "You pass nails, machinery, steel gates, plastics. It's turned into more of a hardware show."

lln lhe Trcding Iloor

Ironically, it was NAWLA's associate members who at the outset seemed to demonstrate more faith in the idea; the first Traders Market. in 1996, sold out its 103 exhibit spaces. "At the first one, nobody knew what to expect, so they sent their sales managers or the most expendable person from the office," recalls Dale Catt, Boise Cascade Corp. wholesale division, Boise, Id. "They liked the forInat and the concentration of suppliers, so by the second one, everyone had time to prepare."

NAWLA was able to make room for 157 exhibitors in 1991 and 175 this year.

Attendance jumped from about 750 in 1996 to 1,300 last year, with more than 1,500 lumber traders expected this year. Universal Forest Products sent fbur buyers the first year, eight the second and will increase its representation this year to double digits.

"The first year I was the only one from our office to attend," agrees Bob Mai, Potlatch Corp., Lewiston, Id. "Last year, we only left one person behind."

As for exhibitors, there's a waiting list to get in. "By going, we saw about 50Vo of our regular customers, including IOO% of our top 20 customers, and we've picked up new people," says Junkins.

Several liken the market's effectiveness to the Western Wood Products Association's spring meeting at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, one of the many events it has drawn people away from. "With all those people milling about in the hotel lobby, you couldn't have a conversation," Killgore says. "It was kind of mayhem."

WWPA and other sponsors have seen event attendance decline in part because they are regional. On the other hand, Bill Scott, Simpson Timber Co., Arcata, Ca., says buyers and sellers are going to the Traders Market "because there's no other show where they can see that many people in one place. Most of the other shows we exhibit at are area shows, where you go to Denver and see people fiom Denver or, at most, from a two or three state area."

"We'll man a booth from l: l5 till 5 or 6, and we'll have people literally lined up to talk to us," says Art Parker, Pope & Talbot, Inc., Portland, Or. "We can see all of our customers and many prospects we've heard about from all over, Canada, the South, the Pacific Northwest. At the Canadian Lumber Association show in Montreal in February, there will be 500 or 600 people total. This is double, maybe triple that."

The show's continental scope has helped southern pine manufacturer Keadle Lumber Enterprises, Inc., Thomaston, Ga., expand out of the South. "We can see more people from more areas of the country," says Dan Pharris. "At the last show, we met a lot of wholesalers from the West who are looking at pine lumber, and we picked up a few customers. Plus, we see the wholesalers we normally sell to."

Although most showgoers can issue (Continued on page TM I0)