W12 Working with Wood, the timber technology show, is 90% booked with nine months to go.
According to director John Smith-Bodden, around 100 companies have booked so far for the exhibition, which takes place at the NEC from October 7-10.
“This is very encouraging, in what is still a difficult market,” he said. “It is also a challenge to grow the number of exhibitors as we already have most of the big names, but what we are seeing is interest from associated technology. In particular we are seeing growth from the materials handling and storage sector, with Bulmor booking this year for the first time. And we will also have wood waste to energy technology suppliers.”
W12 Working with Wood will be held in conjunction with the furniture components and materials exhibition Working with Design. This is aiming for between 150-200 exhibitors and, although the two shows will be in clearly differentiated spaces at the NEC, there will be easy access between the two.
Working with Design will also feature the Design in Manufacture Award for component manufacturers whose products enable customers to “buy in design”.
In 2010 the exhibitions attracted around 10,000 visitors and Mr Smith-Bodden said they were hoping for at least that figure this year.
“The difference may be that we’ll have more companies represented by fewer individuals,” he said.
He thought that the event would also benefit from the fact that Interbuild has closed and it would not be adversely impacted by TimberExpo taking place just weeks before on September 26-27 in Coventry.
“We think the two events are complementary and would actually like to build a co-operative relationship,” he said.
