Mass Timber Construction Podcast

Mass Timber Construction Podcast Special Guest - Arnie 'wood is good' Didier

January 21, 2021 Paul Kremer Season 1 Episode 5
Mass Timber Construction Podcast
Mass Timber Construction Podcast Special Guest - Arnie 'wood is good' Didier
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Arnie is the man behind the microphone on the main stage at the International Mass Timber Construction Conference. In this episode we get the inside scoop on the devastation of cancelling the 2020 event only days out from the launch date. Following the cancellation, the conference has been reborn as an all virtual event. Hear how it has changed and what you can expect in terms of speakers/entertainment this year. In grapevine news, Arnie lets slip what the new slogan is for the 2021 virtual event. 

Registrations are still open, please consider registering for some exceptional value, listen to the podcast to find out what is included. 

Production by Deeelicious Beats 
Music "Game Play" by Quality Quest
Podcast is a Mass Timber Construction Journal Production 
www.masstimberconstruction.com 

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Bruce:

Ladies and gentlemen, we are live. This is the moment you all have been waiting for. It's time for the Global Sensation, the one, the only the undisputed heavyweight podcast in the world The Mass Timber Construction Podcast. And now here's Paul Kremer, your host.

Paul:

If you've ever been to Portland Oregon and you've been to the International Mass Timber Conference, the name Arnie Didier will not be unfamiliar to you. In this episode, we speak to Arnie about what's coming up at the International Mass Timber Conference, which is a virtual event this year in March, and we find out, we get the inside scoop. We have our great Vine news. We know what the new saying will be for 2021. Sit back and enjoy my interview with the wonderful and the magnificent Arnie Didier. So thanks, arnie, for joining us. The International Mass Timber Conference is now virtual this year. Tell us a little bit about the day that you found out that the conference couldn't go ahead. What was the sort of thoughts and sentiments for the team last year when it all came to a complete stop?

Arnie:

Yeah, it was kind of a tenuous time, for sure, for a lot of us. We're blessed, we have our health and we have a lot of things go forward. Literally, it was 17 days before the conference was to be taking place And we're fortunate We've grown kind of opposite of most trade shows, we're more of an educational conference, but it was growing up to about 2,000 attendees from 32 different countries And there's a set of dilemmas because it's an educational conference. At the same time we have an exhibit floor. So you can imagine we had companies from around the world shipping products, shipping things in. We had all the little things you know book, the signages, the no lanyards and those kind of things.

Arnie:

So it was difficult but it was the right decision to make. Governor Brown made the decision along with Mayor Ted Wheeler, and that was a decision we stood by. The Oregon Convention Center was very, very supportive And everybody did the right thing. But you know, we feel very fortunate. We had at the time we had about 89 sponsors and exhibitors And what's amazing to me not really because the wood business is just like this 88 of those 89 were able to roll over their funds to 2021. And we're very welcoming and very supportive And that really helped everybody a lot to help us put together this 21 conference. So it was definitely a stressful time, but it's just something you deal with And lots of people have had to face worse challenges.

Paul:

And this year you've got C-Vent in And as a presenter I have a bit of a backstage glimpse into what's happening. You know, i understand C-Vent traditionally not in this space, but you're running this production very much like a television show And I think you know the professionalism that I've certainly experienced from the back of the stage sort of exposes. It means this event will be significantly different But at the same time it will still have that level of professionalism. How did you find C-Vent? Where did they come from? How did they venture into your?

Arnie:

lives? It's a good question. So C-Vent is a technology company, they're a registration software company, but they're also managing conferences, thousands of them around the world. So we've had a few-year relationship with them. We went out and researched. So Craig Rawlings and Tom Waddell and myself my two business partners really researched And quite candidly and I don't mean this to be a stab but we found that virtual events were not done very well, particularly in the construction industry And especially around the interactive parts and pieces of that. So we looked at a lot of different platforms, studied it heavily before investing in C-Vent And we did a few things behind that.

Arnie:

We invested in their technology platform, their registration platform. But the other big thing is and you mentioned it we invested into what's called the production team. So the production team brings in the scope of expertise. That essentially becomes like a TV show. So portions will be recorded, portions will be like semi-live and then portions will be live And they're able to intertwine those. So the actual educational panels that we're going to host are going to be like a miniature TV show. They're set in the stage of a virtual event. You can't do a 90-minute panel anymore. It's got to be consolidated And so there's going to be less speakers but a little bit more robust in terms of 30-minute sessions, and then we'll have keynote speeches as well. But probably the other biggest thing about the C-Vent platform is there's a few things. They have what's called a virtual hub And then they also for another investment. You can invest in a mobile app, which we have done as well. What that means is the ability for every attendee to connect with every attendee's sponsor, and Exhibitor allows that networking. We think that's really important.

Arnie:

Some people quite candidly think we're crazy because we're opening that entire list up to everybody. Some people would say, oh, you've got competitors. Well, we don't see that. We see this business is different than that, just like the business you're in, the business that others are in. We think if it's for the betterment of the built environment, for the betterment of processing properly wood products, for utilizing them in a mass timber assembly, we think it's best to really share that. But the other thing that we chose the SeaVent platform was for our exhibitors. We have these exhibitors that are really special and it's everything up and down the supply chain. It might be a fastener company, it might be a lumber company, it might be a technology company, it might be an investment company. It could be a mass timber mill itself. So up and down that chain. But you need to have some ability to do some interactive things And the platform allows that to happen, along with the robust networking.

Paul:

Excellent, thank you for that. And this year you've got some amazing lineup of speakers. It seems to me that every year there's another big tech company that gets involved in mass timber Alphabet and Cyborg Labs, and you've got Google, facebook, now Microsoft. It's an ever-evolving and, of course, katera coming through as a almost taking that computerized mentality of ownership in that space and applying it to the built environment through construction, and of course, they're still going through. You've got some amazing guests. What's the theme, what's the flavor for this particular session for the International Mass Timpin Conference this year?

Arnie:

What's a great question and I guess I'll just kind of answer it a little bit different way. In 2016, we hosted the first International Mass Timpin Conference. To put it in perspective, we were hoping for 200 people and we had over 500. And then that's grown progressively 20 to 30, 40% a year. We'll probably have between 2,000 and 3,000 people attending the event. One of the game changers came about a few years ago.

Arnie:

We've been in a lot of conversations with the tech companies. I never would have thought Craig Rawlings and I are lifetime lumber people And we would have never thought we would be hosting Facebook and Microsoft and Google and taking them out in the woods and showing them manufacturing facilities. But that's happened. But probably even more powerful than that is the tech companies, which most people don't realize it. They're very large development companies at the same time, but they want to be comfortable in their decision of their product choices, which is a reasonable thing to expect, and sustainability is very high on the tech company's list.

Arnie:

And what happened was it kind of was a good party for the lumber companies and the forest health companies? We always start first with forest health. I'm a forester by design, we're conservationists by design And we always think it's important to start there. So, prior to the conferences for the mass timber conferences, we hosted multiple conferences in the utilization of small diameter timber And what's important about that is we want that story to be told outside of our choir per se, and what the Googles and Facebooks and Microsofts and Amazons helped us with is an unbiased view that we're willing to step outside their normal box and say, hey, lumber is a good thing And actually cutting down a tree is not a bad thing.

Arnie:

One of the most compelling conversations we had on our stage was a few years back, and Mark Wyshny at the time with the Nature Conservancy was with Michelle Kaufman from Google and Kareem from Sidewalk Labs and David Rommel from Adidas. They just built their new international headquarters in Portland, an all mass timber building. But what he said was very compelling. He said we support mass timber in the utilization of wood fiber And it's a great thing, but it's a really bad thing if you cut the woods down and you make it a parking lot. It's a really good double dip if you're using proper forest management to replant that forest, so then you've got the carbon sequestration in the buildings, you've got healthier forests and it's a combination of all of those things. So we always start with the forest and lead up to these really incredible buildings. But as far as the undertow of a theme for the conference, it always starts with the forest and then it goes all the way up the supply chain to the finished buildings.

Paul:

One of the big things that I think is quite a strength of the conference is knowing the networking, which will be very different this year with the C-Vent virtual proposal And it sounds like you've got a great facility from a digital platform perspective to facilitate that. But the other big thing is that it's focused on industry. So it's simple language, it's simple concepts and it's about enablement. Now the US is about to go boom with mass timber. You said 200 people are now heading towards 3,000 people. I think this is indicative of the magnitude of growth within not only the global perspective, which we've both been on that journey for many years, but also in the US. The prevalence of projects now coming out or the projects in planning is significant. This industry support. is that going to continue with this theme in this conference?

Arnie:

We do see it. We're very fortunate that we have a very strong co-producer, woodworks, which many people know from around the world Jennifer Kover, bill Parsons, ricky McClain very integral in the planning of the conference And they've been able to set some really interesting technical panels which support that growth. The credits for architects, engineers, which are important. They have an established system that will be part of the conference. The reason I bring that up is because so we're not I'm not an engineer, i'm not an architect but we've got some expertise that we're bringing to the table with Woodworks and their team and then they're connected with a lot of expertise, and so we're gonna have individualized panels that have that technical aspect, but under a virtual platform. You need those discussions to be lively and interactive And then the technical stuff is a little part of that, but the accessibility to that during the conference is important Through what's called that virtual hub and in the exhibit floor you're gonna have exhibitors like a Woodworks or an SFI or others like that that are gonna be able to post some technical information. Or if you're a manufacturer of glulams or a manufacturer of CLT or a company that's producing the pieces and parts that make up the building maybe a fastener, maybe a screw. They're gonna be able to provide some technical information that people are searching for, and there's big topics like that that happen. But what's interesting about it is in a opportunity with virtual, you can touch a lot of different things and then every educational panel will be recorded And, as an attendee, you have 90 days to view those.

Arnie:

One of the other things that's interesting is with and attendance. If you attend, you get a couple of things. We think that's a little bit unique, but we think it's important to give people things. One of those is a report. So in 2021, we're going to have the International Mass Timber Report, which previously was the North American Mass Timber Report. It's being expanded and we have a team of folks that are putting that together. It's going to be about 200 pages and so, as an attendee, you're going to be able to do a downloadable copy of that So you can use it in presentations. You can use it for talking and selling what you're going to talk about. It's got a wide range of topics, always starting at the forest What's the sustainability, what's the carbon sequestration In building up to some of the technical things, in the capabilities worldwide? So, as an attendee, you get access to that as part of your fee per se that you're paying to attend. It's pretty cool and it gives a broad base for you.

Paul:

The value is significant. It's around $695 for a full registration United States dollars And if you're getting a free report, plus you're getting access to the multitude of videos that are being recorded through CVENT, and it's a professional production and there's networking opportunities. Plus you've got the exhibitors. The value seems quite good, and I think one of the things that I thought about was the being in North America at the time to visit yourself and others and say hello in person and catch up from a social part.

Paul:

I wondered whether the value would be the same. But if you actually look at it, you're not paying for the airfares, you're not paying for the accommodation. You're getting this other value which you've effectively shifted towards something that can be given no matter where you are in the world. The accessibility aspect is significant too, because some snippets of the conference used to be recorded and published on YouTube, but now the whole thing. So this, to me, is a very exciting way to transform. I wonder if you'll do it in the same vein moving forward, or whether you'll switch back to the in-person. Have anyone discussed that at all, ernie?

Arnie:

We have. We have already reserved the Oregon Convention Center for 2022 and 2023, april 12th through the 14th in 2022. And the idea is that we will do a hybrid event, so we'll do, kind of simultaneously, two events. And touching on something you mentioned, paul, that I think is really important. I'm a sales guy, right, and a lead. In my previous companies that I've run, we always looked at those as a solid lead costs us US between 500 and 1,000 bucks to get. When you go to this conference, we just crossed over 1,000 attendees. Now We're going to have many more than that.

Arnie:

The platform gives you the ability to connect with each attendee. We can't globally just say, hey, here's the list, you have to have privacy rules. It'll be a little bit like LinkedIn or Facebook, where if I want to meet Paul or I want to meet Kate, you have to reach out and vice versa. But as an exhibitor, they're going to be able to host individual Zoom type meetings. They're going to be able to host demonstrations. They're going to be able to show different things within the exhibit hall, which will be standing right alongside the educational panels. One of the other unique things is we you know you try to give value. You know our job is to get attendees. That's good for lots of different reasons, but one of the things you were asking a little bit about who's speaking.

Arnie:

We have an individual. Her name's Ivy Zellman. In North America, ivy Zellman is considered one of the top construction analysts there is. We've been trying to get her to at the conference for three years. She lives in Cleveland. She has offices in New York Because it's virtual, she's able to attend And she's going to deliver a keynote speech which we think is going to be very compelling to a different audience as well, and it's going to be important to people outside of North America that are interested in our market, because they're going to get a chance to see from an expert what she feels is the construction economy going forward. It's going to be very up-fresh-dated material as of March 30th, but what's cool about it is she has also agreed to provide her presentation to every attendee, so you're going to have the opportunity, just like the 2021 Mass Timber Report, you're going to be able to get Ivy's report And, quite honestly, it's very expensive in the past to go see Ivy speak, but she has the ear of most of the major construction companies.

Arnie:

She has the ear of many of the large lumber companies As a matter of fact, idaho Forest Group is helping support bring her to the conference because they believe in it. Enough that we need that level of an individual at the conference to have this unbiased opinion. The other thing that's cool about that, in my opinion, i get excited about there's a very large project being built in Cleveland, ohio, and Ivy took the time out of her schedule to go to the project. It just started. It's the intro project And she actually visited the site, saw Dan Whalen from Harbor Bay got to visit the site. In a sense that it's just starting And she wants to go back to see it progress And so she's going to give some insights. She did a bunch of surveys around Mass Timber in the construction industry outside of our acquire, so she's going to share some of that data. We think that's really powerful.

Paul:

I think it's exciting, having been involved in research. My first talk was on perceptions of Mass Timber here in Australia, and I did that in the 2017, i think it was the second conference where I met you for the first time And Arnie. the chant on the front stage in the main hall was wood is good. Can you give us a grapevine scoop? The grapevine is actually our little gossip section or column, which we try and bring the news forward. What will this year's chant be from Arnie on the front stage? Is it wood is good or have you changed it? Well?

Arnie:

I can tell you that if I told anybody you would have to swear me to secrecy, but the reality behind that it's kind of changed. The wood is cool And the reason I say that is because we've got all of these companies and people from a diverse climate Whether it's climate or diverse people or diverse companies. But the beauty of virtual is it's more international than ever, when we're gonna be able to show, build really cool buildings in Europe and in Asia and in the States and in Canada And that's really powerful. But this whole wood is cool theme, in my opinion, is finally we're at a place where somebody says boy, that makes a lot of sense to me. Forest health makes a lot of sense to me. I always put that judgment against my two daughters, emma and Katie, and they're on the front lines of the COVID situation right, very scary situation, pediatric nursing. But they know the dad, the old man, cuts down trees to make a living and is part of that. But they wanna know dad's taking care of those woods So their kids can have the opportunities that we did. And what I'm seeing, and why I think wood is cool, is we're seeing that being embraced.

Arnie:

So a bunch of the conference is in. Some of the big speakers are gonna talk about sustainability. They're gonna talk about healthy buildings, they're gonna talk about circular economy And we've got some really great people that you're gonna hear from from Microsoft and Skanska and circular economy and just a wide range of folks. We're supporting some of the new build in wood programs in Europe. So you're gonna have a real diverse opportunity at the conference And I think it's really gonna be a good investment, let alone the networking and the reports you're gonna get and just the vibe that you're gonna get And we hope people embrace it And we really.

Arnie:

I'm a big hugger And I wanna hug people again, you know, on stage in Portland And hopefully that happens. But we wanna be respectful for what's happening And the technology is really growing C-Vents a big part of it. All the platforms are getting better and better And we're just hopeful. It's not gonna be perfect, but we're hopeful that people can get a lot of value out of their investments. Whether you're an exhibitor, a sponsor or an attendee, you deserve that return on investment, as you would call it, and We're investing a lot to hopefully make that happen. And whether it's the technology and bringing the right speakers to the table, having Woodworks as a co-producer is big, and then people like yourself. You're gonna be able to give a perspective from where you're coming from And we're gonna have other great folks, you know, in the educational panels. Just, we're pretty excited about it and Wood is really cool.

Paul:

One of the significant things I think that's really important is to give a bit of a shout out to the people that are behind the scenes, the people that do the significant amount of work. How big is the team this year? I knew the size of it when you started because there was literally five people huddling around a booth, plus yourselves running around and Paul and Craig and your interns dispersed in the crowd, and it was, you know, 500 people, or whatever the case might be back in 2016. What's the size of the team at the moment? Have you kept it small or is it grown?

Arnie:

You would be really surprised. It's very small still. So Craig Rawlings is our CEO and Tom Waddell is our vice president, and myself and Tom and Craig are founders and owners of the company. Paul Toussaint is gonna be very prevalent and he's gonna make a surprise appearance from his ranch in Montana. Julie Parmley is our customer service manager. She is incredible, really detail orientated. We have another gentleman that's worked behind the scenes for 10 years but he just moved from San Francisco to Montana. His name's Dave Parzell. He brings a real strong background in marketing and PR And that's really the team.

Arnie:

But I'll say this we have an incredible committee. You know it goes down the list from like a Lee Hall at Facebook and Andreas Geer from Google and Rose Brayden from the Softwood Expert Council and Bill and Ricky from Woodworks, and we have a Forest Service. Brian Brasha and Luigi from George Brown University And a few others have given us a tremendous amount of guidance. And then we lean on our partners. You know we've got these great sponsors and exhibitors. We lean on everybody to bring together a broad range of perspectives. We think it's important for companies to have the opportunity to share ideas, whether they are in sync or not, but share those and then people can make an educated decision. And at the same time, we want to have some fun. So we're gonna the breaks are gonna be unique, to say the least. We're gonna do some fun things during the breaks and then exhibitors are gonna have a chance to do demonstrations and things too, which is gonna be really unique under the platform, that you can't really do live necessarily.

Arnie:

But yeah, our team is very small but we're very blessed with a tremendous amount of worldwide support. And you know, craig Rawlings has been in this business for 50 years. His family is responsible for being part of building many of the major sawmills across North America. But Craig Rawlings is the epitome of a gentleman. He's the epitome of an ethical business person And his kind of network across the world is so incredible. But he's always willing to share. You know we're fortunate. We run the conference and then we have a newsletter that goes out each week under our company, forest Business Network, to about 10,000 people worldwide And they wanna hear what Craig has to say.

Arnie:

He's not gregarious and pontificating like me. He's very matter of fact, but when he speaks people listen and Craig Rawlings has been instrumental in this movement. We have a lot of people to thank through the years. But Craig has really been the leader and you know he's pushing 70 years old, he hikes every day. He's got more energy than I ever know. And something that you may or may not know about Craig Rawlings, he is Technologically. It's incredible. He gets the newest and latest of everything. He's the first one that wants to learn And he's definitely a mentor of mine, along with being a business partner, and he's mentored hundreds and hundreds of people through the years.

Paul:

Yes, look, craig is the mythical unicorn to try and get on to video or audio for recording, and he delegated the opportunity to speak on this show to you, arnie, which means he's got a lot of respect for you. But, craig, if you're listening, when you're listening, because I know you will listen I do want to get a scoop at some stage, so you will have to be technologically advanced and jump on Zoom with me at some point. Arnie, this podcast goes globally. We have such a rapid growing audience. It's been an absolute pleasure to speak with you for anyone anywhere in the world.

Paul:

So we're a third Europe, a third North America and Canada and a third the rest of the world this Asia Pacific, south America and South Africa and Africa proper. What's the message for people that are thinking about attending? They don't have to fly, They don't have to go on a hotel, they don't have to pay any money other than the registration fee and all the benefits they're going to get. What's the clear message for these people around the world that are thinking about doing it but haven't quite yet registered?

Arnie:

Well, I hope you do register And we're doing everything that we can to make sure the investment that you make you can go right through our website, the International Mass Timber Conference. It's easy to get in there, It's easy to register And if you have a question you call me, You call Tom, you call Craig, you call Paul, you call Julie. But we want to make it as easy to register as possible, but then as easy to take advantage of it, of the platform. You'll be on the virtual hub during the conference and have access to everybody And then, if you choose, for free, you can sign up for the mobile app. And what's cool about that? if you invest in the conference, you keep all of those connections on your mobile app platform that you use Along with the Mass Timber Report, International Mass Timber Report, along with Ivy's Elmins Things.

Arnie:

We think it's a value, but it's all about the people, listening to what they have to say, hearing what the latest and greatest is in the mass timber market and then utilizing the skills of the people, the connections with Woodworks and all of these dynamic people across the spectrum. We've got a really great lineup of speakers and I think it's going to be a great investment. I just see it as a win for people that attend and I believe you'll get a good value out of it.

Paul:

Thank you so much for your time. Wood is not only good, it is now cool. So the scoop is Wood is Cool for a global initiative. Aunty Didier, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for being on the podcast. We wish you well with the conference and thank you for coming on.

Arnie:

Thanks for having me, Paul. Looking forward to seeing you in March.

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