RISI hosts record-breaking North American Forest Products conference in San Diego
BOSTON, MA, Oct. 24, 2007 - RISI, the leading information provider for the forest products industry, today announced that the 22nd North American Forest Products Conference, which took place in San Diego, CA from October 10-12, broke all previous attendance records. The event attracted more than 300 pulp, paper, wood and timber professionals from 180 different companies.
The conference program included RISI's 2-year forecasts for pulp, paper, wood products and timber. In addition, expert speakers and panel discussions covered a variety of timely topics including: Will Consolidation Pay Off for the North American Industry?; The New Media and Graphic Paper Demand; US Housing Market: Beyond the Current Gloom; Energy, Climate Change and Forest Industry Competitiveness; The Industry's Political Agenda Going into the 2008 Election Year; and Global Integration for Forest & Paper Companies.
One of the main highlights at the conference was a CEO panel discussion on timely industry topics that included growing industry consolidation, the impact of the weak U.S. dollar on global trade, China's growing position in the world economy, sustainability and environmental trends, and the expanding role of private equity in ownership of the North American forest products industry. The panel featured Mark Suwyn, Chairman/CEO, NewPage; Jim Shepard, President/CEO, Canfor; Paul Stecko, Chairman/CEO, Packaging Corp. of America; and Raymond Royer, President/CEO, Domtar.
The 2007 North American CEO of the Year Award was also presented to Raymond Royer, President/CEO of Domtar, who delivered the event's keynote presentation on "Charting a New Course for the North American Paper/Forest Products Industry Through Turbulent Seas."
Event sponsors included IBM Global Business Services, GE Commercial Finance and Yale School of Forestry.
The 2008 North American Forest Products Conference will be held in Boston, MA in the fall of 2008. Dates and location will be announced shortly. For more information on upcoming RISI events, visit www.risiinfo.com/events or email events@risiinfo.com.
For details on event sponsorship, please email advertising@risiinfo.com.
About RISI
RISI is the leading information provider for the global forest products industry. The company works with clients in the pulp and paper, wood products, timber, tissue, nonwovens, printing and publishing industries to help them make better decisions.
Headquartered in Boston (Bedford), Massachusetts, RISI operates offices in Brussels, Belgium; Atlanta, Georgia; San Francisco, California; Portland, Oregon; São Paulo, Brazil; Shanghai, China; Singapore; and Charlottesville, Virginia. More information can be found at www.risiinfo.com.