The latest reports on this year’s 11th WOOD-TEC fair to be staged from 20 to 23 October at the exhibition centre in Brno say that the pavilions are almost completely sold out. “This year the WOOD-TEC fair is concentrated in the state-of-the-art part of the exhibition centre, i.e. in pavilion F and the newly opened pavilion P, and on the adjacent outside areas. At the present time pavilion F is filled to capacity and only some parts of pavilion P are still free,” Karel Torn, Director of the WOOD-TEC fair, informed us. “In spite of the present crisis the firms are showing keen interest in presenting and showcasing their products. They take their attendance at the fair as a chance and opportunity to rev up trade”, Karel Torn explains. At present some 238 firms from 13 countries have been registered; most of the leaders on the market will attend the fair, among them for instance BALJER-ZEMBROD Ltd., BeA CS Ltd., Blum Ltd., FELDER Group CZ Ltd., HÄFELE GmbH & Co. KG, Hettich ČR k.s., HOUFEK Co., ITALCOMMA Ltd., PANAS Ltd., ROJEK Wood-Working Machines Co., Schachermayer Ltd., TEKMA Ltd. and a number of others. The largest exhibitions will be Rojek (600 m2), Felder (500 m2), EPIMEX Wood-Working Machines Ltd. (450 m2) and Houfek (400 m2). “We are very pleased and we appreciate very much that exhibitors consider WOOD-TEC to be the key event in this branch and that they have remained faithful to it even in the present tough situation”, Karel Torn added.

Schedule your trade negotiations for the WOOD-TEC fair.

At this year’s largest international fair of machinery, equipment and materials for the wood-working industry in Central and Eastern Europe WOOD-TEC, for the first time firms - not only in the area of the wood-working industry - will have the opportunity to establish contacts with partners which they will select beforehand and put them on their individual schedule. “In the previous two years representatives of more than 300 firms from 15 countries met during the event in Brno and more than 2000 business talks were held”, said Petr Bajer, Director of the Regional Chamber of Commerce in Brno which is the organiser of the meeting. He pointed out that the b2fair project gives the maximal effect and minimal costs. “It joins the advantages of exhibition presentations and matchmaking. The firm does not only sit at the stand waiting to see who will notice it but chooses its own partners with whom they want to talk; and we shall take care of that.” The idea of the b2fair was conceived at the large specialised fairs in Western Europe with the objective of intensifying opportunities for the establishment of new business relations. The conception became popular among the firms very quickly and more than 75 % of participants have confirmed its high efficiency. It is appreciated by exhibitors and visitors alike as it saves their time and costs which they have to invest when seeking out suitable partners for negotiations. The WOOD-TEC 2009 b2fair will be held on 21 and 22 October in Pavilion F.

Reliability and service life of wooden structures, energy use of biomass and competition for visitors

As tradition now has it an integral part of the WOOD-TEC fair is the professional accompanying programme “Wood – an integral component of sustainable development” organised by the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology of Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry in Brno in co-operation with BVV Trade Fairs Brno. Seminars, conferences and meetings on novelties, trends and topical issues will be held during the fair. Discussed at these meetings will be for instance the reliability and service life of wooden structures, energy use of biomass, electronic inspection of round timber and bioenergy and a number of topical issues. For visitors a popular-science competition has been prepared called “Learn to Recognise Our Wood”. The principle is to give the general public of all age categories a better idea of all the native woody species. People will learn to distinguish the respective woody species both microscopically and macroscopically. The advantage is that they will be able to touch the wood samples and to compare their hardness, colour, brightness, scent and other properties. An integral part of the competition is a poster exhibition with pictures and descriptions of the most important woody species of the Czech Republic. The task of the competitors will be to specify correctly five wood samples; from the correct answers winners will be drawn and will receive prizes.