The European Organisation of Sawmill Industries (EOS) and the European Timber Trade Federation (ETTF), together with their partners, Fédération Nationale du Bois (FNB) and Le Commerce du Bois (LCB), are glad to announce that the 2016 edition of the International Softwood Conference will take place on 13 and 14 October 2016 in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Paris.

Representatives of the Forestry based sector and experts of the timber market are cordially invited to attend this exclusive and prestigious international event.  

Following the formats of previous conferences, the program will consist of one day and a half of deep timber market analysis.

The 2016 ISC will start on Wednesday 12 October 2016 at 19:30 when a cocktail reception at the Paris Marriott Rive Gauche Hotel is organized. The day after, on 13 October, the conference will start at 9 am with the welcome and opening of the conference given by several high level speakers including Cyril Le Picard (France Bois Forêt Chairman), Pierre Gautron (President of LCB), Philippe Siat (President of FNB), Sampsa Auvinen (President of EOS and CEO of Norvik Timber Industries) and Andreas von Möller (President of ETTF and managing partner of Jacob Jürgensen). During the day, participants will have the great opportunity of listening some regional market analyses such as Canada, by André Beaulieu (Director of Retail Sales, Irving), North America by Marc Brinkmeyer (Chairman, Idaho Forest Group), North Africa by Guillaume Hotelin (Deputy CEO, Comarbois), the Egypt market by Ibrahim Elshal (CEO, Elshal Timber) and finally Russia by Sviatoslav Bychkov (Managing Director ILIM Timber). Later in the afternoon, CEO and industrialists will be invited to a panel discussion on the timber market where they will provide with an overview of the challenges and threats they foresee in the near future.

On 13 October, in the evening, the ISC gala dinner will take place in Versailles and a private visit of the Château de Versailles will be organized.

On 14 October, the final part of the conference will start at 9 am. During the morning participants will have the pleasure to listen to the following presentations: “Overview of Softwood Lumber Market in China” by Richy Zhang (Deputy General Manager, Zhejiang Materials Industry Senhua Group Co.Ltd.), “Japan market of softwood condition” by Yuichi Shinohara (Owner of Shinohara Group), “The German market” by Andreas von Möller (ETTF), and “The Indian Market” by Prashanth Reddy (FunderMax GmbH). The last presentation will be dedicated to social housing by the French architect Anna Chassaing. The event will be concluded with a “get together lunch”.

The moderator of the event is Mr Ladislaus Döry, Honorary President of the European Panel Federation (EPF).

Concerning the partner’s program, on Thursday 13 October 2016 at 9.00 a mini city tour towards Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral will be organized, including the visit of île Saint-Louis and île de la Cité and its monuments (the Palais de Justice, the Conciergerie, the Sainte Chapelle and Notre Dame); and, in the afternoon, a guided tour of the Eiffel Tower will be held.

The full programme and information for registration and accommodation are available on the website: http://www.isc2016.fr; Please share the information with peers and colleagues and make sure to attend!

We look forward to seeing you next October in Paris!