Can cabinet and furniture finishing skills grow your sales? Yes, says expert Bernie Bottens, who will tell how to do it at Wood Tech Summit 2012, Oct. 22-23 at the downtown University of British Columbia campus in Vancouver, BC.

Bottens is the finishing authority for Custom Woodworking Business magazine, and a popular bloggist at Woodworking Network.

"Woodshops have to be versatile to get business," says Bottens. "Every day is a different ballgame. Monday it may be a stain and clearcoat. Tuesday you have that paint-grade job to prep and spray. Thursday may be a glaze job. 

"Are you ready? There are some tricks to help you stay on schedule and to make you look like an all-star finisher!"

Bottens also runs a woodworking business, Kapellmeister Enterprises, producing music furniture such as lecterns, podiums, and portable graduated wood stands for choral groups.

Registration is open for Wood Tech Summit, a management level conference for North American woodworking professionals, Oct. 22-23, 2012, at the University of British Columbia’s Robson Square campus in downtown Vancouver.

Wood Tech Summit represents the latest collaboration between the Centre for Advanced Wood Processing (CAWP) at UBC and Woodworking Network. The two-day event will feature three comprehensive full-day conferences — Wood Finishing, Plant Productivity and Business Development. The event will also feature a Networking Reception on the evening of Monday, Oct. 22, including tabletop displays by leading industry suppliers.

Highlights of 2012 Wood Tech Summit include:

In addition to Botten's "Finishing & Business Development" presentation, Wood Tech Summit presenters include:

  • Opening keynote by furniture and casegoods wunderkind Judson Beaumont, whose Straight Line Designs sets a new business model by breaking the limits on design for custom furniture, and public installations;

• Finishing Conference presentation by Denis Staples, president of Deslaurier Custom Cabinets, whose successful rebuild of the shop he co-owns after a devastating fire is featured in the book, That’ll Never Work, Business Lessons From Successful Canadian Entrepreneurs;

• Plant Productivity presentation on North America’s first fully automated lights out cabinetry and wood products manufacturing operation;

• Plus, Finishing R&D, Green Marketing, Drumming Up Business with Social Media, 21st Century Prototyping and Integrating CAD/CAM with CNC Machining and automating materials handling.

Register and learn more about Wood Tech Summit, including confirmed presentations, at WoodTechSummit.com.

For more information about attending the Wood Tech Summit or exhibit and sponsorship opportunities, contact: Iain Macdonald, Managing Director, Centre for Advanced Wood Processing at 604-822-1472, e-mail [email protected]; or Rich Christianson, Vance Communications, 847-415-8024, e-mail [email protected].