The North American Wholesale Lumber Association (NAWLA) invited Columbus, Ohio, area high school students to the Greater Columbus Convention Center to be part of the recent 2023 Traders Market. With Traders Market being the intersection of industry veterans and emerging professionals in the forest products industry, this was the perfect opportunity for the students to connect with leading buyers and suppliers and learn about careers in lumber.
The one-day event kicked off with a welcome breakfast and presentation from NAWLA First Vice Chair Clark Spitzer, who provided an overview of NAWLA, career progression, sustainability within lumber and what those outside of the industry may not know. At the conclusion of breakfast, the students were split into small groups and toured around the tradeshow floor by NAWLA ambassadors.
To better understand the lumber industry and career opportunities, the tradeshow floor tour was broken up into three rotations with each rotation narrowing in on a different NAWLA membership type: wholesalers, manufacturers and service affiliates. Each rotation lasted for 30 minutes and the students were able to interact with representatives from nine different NAWLA member companies.
At the conclusion of the tradeshow floor tours, the students had a debrief on their experience and heard a closing presentation from Allison DeFord of the North American Forest Foundation on the sustainability of the industry.
NAWLA is excited to see what the future holds and is thrilled to continue to provide career opportunities like this for students looking to dip their toes into the industry.
NAWLA would like to extend a special thank you to Forest City Trading Group, The Forest Products Group, Tri-State Forest Products Inc., Bramwood Forest, Zip O Logs, RoyOMartin, Blue Book Services, DMSi and Affinity HR for participating in the tradeshow tours.
