Firm chipper over expo involvement

One of the world's largest forestry expos has just become more accessible for Central North Island foresters with a local company becoming the Australasian partner for the event.

Rotorua association and events management company Innovatek has been invited to be an official partner of the 16th KWF-Tagung expo, scientific congress and fieldtrips in Germany in June 2012.

Sponsorship and events manager Gordon Thomson said this would be 2012's largest in-forest demo in the world and he was looking to take a New Zealand delegation to Bopfingen, in the east-Swabian alps, for the event.

"Someone from the organisation did a sabbatical with us last year. Then, when I was at the Ligna wood expo in Germany in June, I met one of the project managers for KWF-Tagung and we came on board as partners."

The Kuratorium fur Waldarbeit und Forsttechnik event runs every four years and attracted more than 43,000 people from around the world in 2008.

"People come from all over the world for this and they want to market it here. But from that distance it is difficult because of the time differences."

He said a number of New Zealand sawmillers attended the Ligna wood event in Hannover and he hoped people working in the forestry sector would also take the opportunity to find out what was happening in the European industry.

Next year's theme is Fascinating Forestry - Winning by Co-operation and Innovatek will be promoting the event in New Zealand and Australia. Thomson said it was aimed at forestry contractors, owners and managers and industry technology suppliers, offering the opportunity to see Europe's new forestry innovations in action.

A pavilion of 100ha of fields and forests in the Swabian state forest will host the expo component of the Tagung. The previous event attracted more than 400 exhibitors from more than 20 countries, each presenting their latest developments and technologies.

Thomson said KWF-Tagung was the most important international meeting of the forestry sector happening next year.