WFCA Virtual Conference 2021

[Scooter]

This is big, an excellent opportunity for group rates, to get far more industry participants involved:

Announcing Group Rates!
While you can still register independently here, we wanted to encourage all contracting companies to look at bringing their full team of senior management, supervisors and on the ground crew to attend this year’s Conference.
It’s a great opportunity to invest in your people.

This year is unique in that no travel, accommodation or additional expenses are being incurred. As well, conference ticket prices are at an all-time low rate, and even more so when a Group Corporate package is considered. To support current day issues and mandatory health and safety initiatives, we have a very heavy emphasis on safety training and awareness – so why not extend this great learning opportunity to your full crew? This enables your entire team to be involved and engaged at an industry level, and from a management perspective, this engagement might help you to identify and shape your future ground crew to becoming the dynamic supervisors and leaders for your company.

These group rate packages are designed per company, and each company will be given their own unique purchase link. Please note that the link will be capped at the specified ticket quantity. Any individual tickets purchased prior to today can be exchanged and upgraded to a group package.

25 Tickets for $2,000
50 Tickets for $2,500
100 Tickets for $3,500
150 Tickets for $4,000
151 - 500 Tickets for $5,000
(all rates subject to 5% GST)

If you are interested in registering for a group of tickets, please email our office at admin@WFCA.ca so we can send you an invoice and the link for your group tickets.

The WFCA Annual Conference and Expo will be held:

Courses (tentative): Tues Feb 9, 2021
Conference Portion: Wed to Fri Feb 10 to Feb 12, 2021
Expo Portion: Wed to Fri Feb 10 to Feb 12, 2021

Tuesday, February 9th - Training Day (tentative)

We are working on offering virtual training seminars as a prelude to the conference program. Depending on what kind of sessions can work in this medium we will announce the offerings soon.
Wednesday, February 10th - Workplace Safety Day

You can tune in on this day for interactive plenary sessions and presentations. We are lining up speakers and presenters on the following themes and projects:

Outline of BC SAFE Forestry Program for 2021
COVID-19: What did we learn this year? What can we expect next?
Workplace Harassment and Violence Prevention: Creating trust on crews, Northern Society for Domestic Peace training video
Danger Trees and Forestry: Report and recommendations from the danger tree steering committee
Emergency Response Planning: Making the case to WKSFBC on the value of HEMS, TEAAM update and insurance plan
As well as: Lyme Disease, Total Physio, Mental Health, silviculture supervisor training and others.

All sessions will provide generous breaks to prevent staring-at-the-screen-too-long-syndrome (SATSTLS—pronounced satstls).
Thursday, February 11th - Forest Policy and Workshop Day

We are lining up speakers from across the continent and BC to talk about the big picture and policy, and the practice that goes with it. All presenters TBA

Natural Disasters and Forestry: We are lining up a panel to examine the social consequences of natural disasters, particularly wildfire, and what role forestry might play in mitigating them.
Federal Support for COVID-19 and the 2-billion Tree Promise
Workshops:
Cyber security and small businesses
How to write and implement an employee code of conduct
Alternative fibres, plastics, and reforestation
COVID-19 safety and the 2021 wildfire season

Friday, February 12th - Strategic Sessions including:

Introducing BC's new Forests Minister
Forecasting reforestation services demand outlook
Reporting from the 2021 Labour Market Information Project
And so on…
WFCA Members’ AGM

We appreciate your patience as we tighten up the program and confirm our presenters. Please stay tuned for more details.

Register Now!

Note: Online registration is set per individual. To register multiple people from the same organization, please email us at admin@wfca.ca

[Scooter]

The conference is just a week away. Discounts on group tickets. A number of planting companies have purchased tickets in bulk for their management teams and even for planters. Talk to your company today if you're interested in this, because they might be happy to pay for your ticket.

[Scooter]

The WFCA (Western Forestry Contractors’ Association) is holding its Annual Conference next week, from Wednesday to Friday. The majority of the presentations will be on Wed/Thurs. Everything is online this year due to Covid.

Since the Conference is virtual, they’ve been able to drastically reduce the ticket cost, and offer bulk deals to companies. A large number of planting companies have bought up blocks of tickets, allowing many members of management (and even senior planters) to watch all of the presentations and workshops.

If you’re a foreman, checker, tree runner, or any other management position and you’re interested in this, you should reach out to your company owner right away and ask if they can cover the cost of your ticket. I suspect that a lot of them would be happy to accommodate. A company can buy a block of 50 tickets for only $2500, so that’s only $50/person (it’s normally several hundred dollars to attend in person).

Here’s a list of some of what’s being presented:

Wednesday: (February 10th)
- Remarks from Robin McCullough (of Brinkman) about the BC SAFE forestry program.
- Allan Holmes (founder of Iridia Medical) talking about what to expect from Covid in the industry for the upcoming 2021 season.
- Jordan Tesluk talking about Covid past (2020) and future (2021).
- Danger Tree Committee report.
- Total Physio presentation, “Reports From The Field 2020”
- Jordan Tesluk talking about Human Resource Management and social movement, and increasing employee satisfaction.
- Harassment Presentation (and new video) from the Northern Society for Domestic Peace.
- Womxn In Silviculture talking about how to support workers reporting harassment, and establishing safe workplaces.
- Emergency helicopter extractions.
- Feedback about current tree planter industry survey, and how it will help address and improve recruitment and retention of planters.

Thursday: (February 11th)
- Message from Seamus O’Regan, Federal Minister of Natural Resources. Perhaps some commentary about the 2 Billion Tree promise?
- Wildfires & BC Forest Landscapes.
- Indigenous Approaches to Community Recovery & Landscape Restoration.
- BC Wildfire Service presentation about what they will expect from contractor wildfire suppression crews this year.
- Implementing a Respectful Workplace Code of Conduct for the Forestry Sector.
- Working together to eliminate the use of plastic flagger. Why should we?

Friday: (February 12th)
- A couple short presentations in the early morning from BC’s Chief Forester (Diane Nichols) and from Neil Hughes from the BC Forest Practices Branch.

For more information, visit this link:
https://wfca.ca/wfca-annual-conference- ... ence-2021/

Like I said, if you’re interested in this, contact your employer right away. They may be willing to sponsor the registration cost for many of you, especially if you’re at any level of management (or a senior planter).

[Treeppy]

Does anybody know if any of the presentation videos will be available to stream and/or download later? Or if they could be made available through companies?
I am really interested in some of them, but unfortunately the conference takes place during weekdays and I will be at work at that time.

[Scooter]

I'm not sure, but I'll try to find out tomorrow. If they are, I'll make sure to post here and email you directly, to let you know where to download/stream them.

[Treeppy]

That would be great! Thanks Scooter!

[Scooter]

Yes, some of the presentations are expected to be online within two weeks. I'll post links here as soon as I see that they're available.

[Scooter]

Slightly related to the conference, here's a link to the TreePlanting United Film Festival page:

https://vimeo.com/user128309356

Check it out!