In October CAWP launched two new programs aimed at promoting the creation of new wood products. The first is called Designing with Wood, and helps industrial designers get familiar with wood and the wood products industry by providing technical assistance and creating opportunities for designers to meet companies that may be interested in manufacturing their products. Designers pay a low daily or half-day fee to access these services:

• One-on-one technical mentoring to understand the properties of different wood-based materials and select the best materials for a particular product application
• One-on-one mentoring on software and processing machinery used in the woodworking industry, including 3D CAD and computer-numerical-control (CNC) equipment
• Consultation and advice on industry structure and supply chains and how to find a manufacturer that can produce your product
• Prototyping and product testing services

We will also hold an evening “matchmaking” session in February where designers can present ideas to manufacturers who are looking for ways to utilize spare production capacity.

Our second initiative has been dubbed “Outside the Box” and is a meeting series for industrial and interior designers, artisans, furniture makers, manufacturers, builders, architects and anyone interested in or involved in the wood products industry (broadly defined) to meet, share ideas, and identify gaps in the market and possibilities for new product development and innovation. Our goal is to let users and makers of products interact and explore opportunities in a casual, relaxed atmosphere that encourages creative ideas and fosters new partnerships. Our group moderators will post takeaway points and resources that the group wants to share on a private blog. We will meet one evening a month at a casual venue in the Vancouver area where members can talk for a couple of hours in a relaxed atmosphere over light food and beverages. The inspiration behind Outside the Box is the WWII-era Skunkworks efforts to develop radical new products in unorthodox ways. We hope this group will become a kind of informal brain trust in which product users and makers can bring forward and vet ideas, brainstorm, identify opportunities, and match them to local capabilities. To join the group and RSVP for our first meetup event on November 22nd go to http://www.meetup.com/Outside-the-Box-Meetup-Group/

For more details on these programs contact CAWP at [email protected] or call Barbara Bell at 604-876-1169.

Source: CAWP