Article by Rich Donnell
Editor-in-Chief
As usual we enjoyed our exhibit experience at the Southern Forest Products Assn. exposition in the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta June 10-12. While it’s always great to see “old” faces, we especially like seeing some younger ones, and indeed there were a lot of new generation sawmillers walking around.
Certainly the Atlanta expo is one of the two biggest forest products machinery events in North America. The other is the Timber Processing & Energy Expo, which is held in the alternate year.
More specifically, TP&EE will take place September 28-30, 2016 and again the site will be the Portland Exposition Center in Portland, Ore. For those of you who are manufacturing lumber every day, it seems like a long way away. For those of us who put on the event, it’s already here.
As they say, it’s never too early to plan ahead, especially for our international readers, so let me give you a mid-term update on the event.
The 2016 TP&EE will mark the third time that Hatton-Brown Publishers (publisher of Timber Processing, Panel World and other wood industry magazines) and affiliate Hatton-Brown Expositions have sponsored TP&EE. The 2012 and 2014 events were increasingly successful. Those of you who participated in the 2014 event will recall we were packed in like sardines. The show included 170 exhibitors of lumber and plywood machinery. Attendees came from 140 wood products companies representing hundreds of mill operations from throughout North America and 20 other countries.
The biggest development since the 2014 event is that the 2016 event will move into a larger exhibit hall, which is next door to the one the expo was held in last time. The new venue is Hall E, which is 108,000 square feet, compared to the 72,000 square feet that were in Hall D.
The additional space is allowing several things to happen. One is that those exhibitors who were on the waiting list last time but couldn’t get in, should be able to get in now. Also, the existing exhibitors who want to increase their exhibit space and bring in more machinery can do so. The additional space allows us to reach out internationally, and the next show will include a German Pavilion that features numerous exhibitors headquartered in that country. We’ve also been able to substantially increase the size of the TP&EE Beer Garden, which will include more seating and be a base for relaxation. And finally the additional space will simply give attendees a more pleasant experience as they walk the floor.
Meanwhile, exhibit sales are well under way and all of that additional exhibit space we thought we had is going fast.
As we move forward, we invite you to consider using the Portland Expo facilities during TP&EE for your company meetings, association gatherings, educational sessions, and whatever else might come to mind. Just let us know.