Kick off your WoodBUILD experience at the conference centre’s reception area, where our friendly team will be ready to greet you at the WoodBUILD desk. Pick up your badge, sign up for workshops, and then head into the main hall to enjoy refreshments, meet fellow attendees, and explore our vibrant exhibition space.
The buzz starts here—welcome to Day 1!

To kick things off, our fantastic MC Rachel Cook who runs Networks for Woodknowledge Wales, will take the stage with a warm welcome and a look ahead at what’s in store. Get ready for a day packed with fresh ideas, big conversations, and plenty of inspiration.

This is a moment to look at our collective and individual progress since WoodBUILD 2025. Learn about innovation projects our sponsors have been working on. Share some of your own projects and find out how, together, we’ve been advancing the formidable five: purposeful growing, added-value processing, low-carbon manufacturing, net-zero construction and fostering an enabling wood culture.  

Make your way into the coffee lounge, on the ground floor of the Conference Centre to enjoy refreshments. Network with your peers as you peruse our 20 indoor and outdoor exhibition stands in the adjacent main hall. This is where connections are made!

Hear from our visionary speakers, how they expect the future to unfold. We’ll be looking at economic, ecological, social and geopolitical forecasts and more and how these may impact our industry beyond what we already take into account in today’s business decisions and operations.

It’s time to recharge and reconnect. Make your way into the coffee lounge, on the ground floor of the Conference Centre for buffet lunch and refreshing drinks. As you refuel, take the opportunity to explore the exhibition in the main hall, and strike up a conversation—you never know where a good chat might lead.

Discover some of the contagious bottom-up projects working with communities on retrofit and newbuild projects as well as forest management and timber processing. Learn how these grassroots approaches nourish diversity and inclusion whilst addressing poverty through tangible action in forest and building construction and what funders investing into these projects are looking for. 

Join us again in the ground floor coffee lounge (in the Conference Centre) for refreshments, good conversation. Pop into the main hall to connect with peers in a space designed to inspire collaboration and innovation.

Across Europe the question of transformation in land use and society is being discussed on a regional and national level. Catalonia demonstrates an innovative and politically bold approach to fostering a forest based bioeconomy in a socio-economically challenging context. How does this relate to the situation in Wales and the UK? What inspiration can newly elected Senedd members take from this example? What are the key questions that require addressing over the next political mandate? 

Join our keynote speaker and a panel of policy makers and industry members for a dialogue around the policy questions that matter. 

We look forward to continuing our discussions informally over dinner.

An informal gathering with drinks served in the Stilts restaurant on campus, followed by a hot buffet on campus will allow us all to keep the buzz going, listen to a few impromptu announcements and celebrate some off-programme successes as we all enjoy some locally prepared food.

Welcome back! Head through the main reception and make your way into the coffee lounge in the Conference Centre and the exhibition hall. Enjoy morning refreshments, reconnect with peers, and ease into another inspiring day at WoodBUILD.

Our brilliant MC, Rachel Cook, is back to give you a warm WoodBUILD welcome. She’ll guide us into Day 2 with a smile, a spark, and a quick look back at the highlights from Day 1—setting the tone for another day of insight, ideas, and inspiration.

What are the hands-on questions that matter most to people in the industry? This session is designed to spark down to earth conversations on a kaleidoscope of questions brought in by you. Please respond to our two questions in the registration form to fuel the conversation. Your input will provide the basis for this morning’s keynote presentation and panel debate.

Feeling inspired? Stretch your legs and drop by the coffee lounge in the Conference Centre.  With coffee brewing and conversations flowing, it’s the perfect moment to catch up with peers and dive back into our exhibition space—there’s always something new to discover.

Option 1: Finance and insurance meets home-grown and reclaimed timber

Option 2: Future investment in housing meets forest management and processing infrastructure.

Option 3: Community action meets forest needs: the potential of community woodlands

Option 4: Policy action meets timber potential: leading the timber age with public buildings

Option 5: Skills need meets peer-led action: innovative approaches to developing relevant skills

Lunch is served—and so are the connections. Head back to the coffee lounge in the Conference Centre once again for a buffet lunch that fuels both body and mind. Whether you’re diving into conversation or taking a final stroll through the adjacent exhibition, this is another opportunity to share ideas, swap stories, and sow the seeds of collaboration.

Option 1: Making wood work for rural communities

Option 2: Making natural fibre insulation work for new build and retrofit

Option 3: Making the grade: unlocking opportunities for a variety of timber species and reclaimed timber

Option 4: Healthy kids for healthy futures: investing in the performance of biobased school buildings

Option 5: Resilient forests for resilient industries: prioritising productive tree species in Wales

Join us in the coffee lounge of the Conference Centre for refreshments, good conversation, and a chance to connect with peers in a space designed to inspire collaboration and innovation.

Keynote presentation – to be confirmed 

Further details to follow shortly. 

As this conference draws to a close, what are we taking with us and what are we inclined to move forward between now and summer 2027?