Organisers of the W8 Working with Wood exhibition have contacted every company who booked stands for the cancelled Timber Show in a bid to grow the size of the October 26-29 event at Birmingham NEC.
“We have quite a lot of people from The Timber Show that we are talking to at the moment,” said W8 exhibition organiser John Smith-Bodden. “They can either go to Interbuild’s Timber Zone or ourselves.”
Mr Smith-Bodden said W8 offered a larger specific wood industry audience than Interbuild, which runs at the same time in adjoining NEC halls, and was a cost-effective option for companies.
He acknowledged the decision by Interbuild organisers to change their show dates to run at the same time as W8 “probably” meant that the growth rate of the diversified areas of W8 (non-machinery) would not be as high as originally hoped, but there would certainly be more timber suppliers in evidence.
A total of 13,500m² has been booked for W8 so far, compared with 11,000m² at the same stage two years ago. The target is 15-15,500m².
W8 organisers are talking to Interbuild about having a physical “skyway” link between the two shows.
