2018 DANA NZ Forest - Wood Products Conference & Field Trip
30 September - 03 October 2018
It gives us great pleasure to be able to bring to you the 2018 DANA NZ Forest - Wood Products Conference & Field Trip in and around the Taupo Region in early October. This follows on from several previous DANA NZ conferences, including a very successful (and over-subscribed) pre-conference field trip in Rotorua last year.
Sunday 30 September - Optional Pre-event Boat Adventure: Join us and cruise Lake Taupo on one of Chris Jolly Outdoors charter boats for trout fishing, claybird shooting and a buffet dinner. This is a great way to enjoy some of what the Taupo region have to offer, and to network - on a “lazy” Sunday afternoon.
Monday 01 October and Tuesday 02 October (AM) - Conference: We have expanded this out to 1 ½ days this year. Given the change in government and a serious re-focus on forestry and the forest processing sector, we thought it timely to provide a theme for this year’s event: Does the NZ Industry Have to be World Class to Compete in the World? We already have almost 95% of the 18 speaking slots filled, and so the programme is able to show these, even as we launch the website.
With previous conference organisation experience, we have been able to further refine our programme to attract a wide ranging audience - from selected important political figures, to forestry and wood processing presentations, and including specially interesting panel slot, where we have persuaded wine, kiwifruit and avocado industry leaders to share their views on what it takes to be or become “World Class”. We also have presentations by leaders in non- direct forest sector positons (e.g. a geothermal power company and a port) which are so important to our sector.
Tuesday 02 October (PM) and Wednesday 03 October - Optional Field Trip: As with the conference we have expanded the Field Trip to be 1 ½ days - it will commence immediately after the conference concludes at 12.30pm on Tuesday. This gives us more opportunity to “spread out” visits, and to include a variety of stops. Once again we are very grateful to a number of field trip hosts who all go out of their way to make these DANA Field Trips such a success. We will visit a wide range of sites, including forest- and wood processing mill- based, a new geothermal power station and a stop to see a fascinating, brand new hi-tech black box innovation at another geothermal power station. Last year we were quickly oversubscribed with field trip delegates and unfortunately had to decline requests to join us, so we would encourage you to register early.
We welcome your attendance at both the Conference and Field Trip and look forward to hosting you in Taupo in October.