WMIA Sponsors WCMA Conference

Furniture World Magazine

The Woodworking Machinery Industry Association (WMIA) is sponsoring the Wood Component Manufacturers Association's (WCMA) 2007 Fall Conference & Plant Tour Event, November 5-7 in Grand Rapids, Mich. WMIA will be sponsoring the educational component of the meeting. The program will cover profitability; costing; market trends and forecasts; worker safety, health and productivity; employee training and development; sales and marketing strategies; and technological advances in the industry. The sponsorship is part of WMIA's "Commitment to Excellence Through Technology" campaign. The organization has sponsored previous events and will continue to work with WCMA members in pursuit of common goals. "WMIA's mission is to enlighten our members' customers about the wisdom and economic value of investing in and re-tooling with cost-cutting, high-technology equipment," says WMIA President Giordano Checchi. "To do so will reduce their dependency on costly, labor-intensive practices and reverse, even eliminate the current bleeding of jobs to countries with cheaper labor." Checchi continued to say that investing in high-tech equipment will create jobs for technologically skilled North American woodworkers while creating better products and more profit for North American woodworking firms. "We believe that, if our customers manufacture close to their North American markets, they eliminate overseas transportation costs and avail themselves of the efficiencies derived from high-tech equipment," he says. "They can afford higher, but significantly fewer, wages and still be profitable and competitive." WCMA members who want to attend the conference can register at www.woodcomponents.org. WMIA is a Maryland-based association of companies whose primary business is providing the North American market with the latest woodworking technology, equipment, computer software and distribution service channels available globally. The association maintains a website at www.wmia.org. For more information, contact WMIA HQ, 3313 Paper Mill Rd., Suite 202, Phoenix, MD 21131. Phone: 410/628-1970, Fax: 410/628-1972, E-mail: info@wmia.org.