To date, the show, the last being W6, has been run as a stand-alone event by the Wood Machinery Suppliers Association (WMSA) under chief executive John Smith-Bodden. However, it was felt that the sector needed continuous marketing activity to maintain the momentum created at the biennial exhibition.
At the launch of W Aspects Ltd at Coventry’s Ricoh Stadium, WMSA members were told by chairman Ian Brown that the new initiatives would provide a “suite of ways for sector customers and suppliers to talk”.
“Market contacts built up during the approach to W6 indicated that year-round ways of meeting the customer were available… we have a major commercial opportunity which is bigger than could be achieved by a single trade association.”
W Aspects will also manage the new W Zone website, in which it has invested a “six-figure sum” and launches at the end of April. Companies will be able to to post information on the site and send e-mail bulletings to alert customers to latest news.
Another “e-marketing” facility, W Connects, will allow companies to target information to specific groups of customers and suppliers.
Mr Smith-Bodden said the online services would “bring together a sector community” and would concentrate on“ well-matched conversations, the opposite of junk mail”.
He has stepped down as WMSA chief executive to head W Aspects. Other board members are Geoff Isenman and Angela McGowan, with David Thompson-Rowlands and Ian Brown representing the WMSA.
