Greeting from Wurzburg, Germany where I’ve traveled to take part in a nine day Tour of Technology with a group of industry pro’s looking at manufacturing technology solutions specifically geared towards window, door and solid wood production.

We will be touring facilities in the localities of Wurzburg, Stuttgart, and Munich and end our tour in Nurnberg at the Fensterbau Show, the International Window/Door Exhibition.

Our group is being graciously hosted by the Stiles Machinery Group of Grand Rapids, Michigan who represents numerous lines of machinery for the woodworking industry among which is Homag CNC machining centers.

So far, I’ve been here since Saturday and we’ve spent the weekend exploring the small city of Wurtzburg, population approximately 130,000 and sampling the very excellent German cuisine and beer. Lorraine, our CMP (certified meeting professional) has done the most amazing job in organizing the activities and picking out top notch accommodations and restaurants. Amazingly, this is the 30th international trip she has organized and participated in for Stiles.

Yesterday we had an extremely well informed professional tour guide show us some of the sights that included the heavily fortified fortress-residence (there was no conservatory) of the former Prince Bishop, religious and political head of the Franconia region. The area is now part of Bavaria, having been taken over sometime in the middle ages. We also toured the main Cathedral in the city, saw a lovely Gothic chapel and walked along the Main River which flows through the middle of the city. Spent lot’s of time walking around. It is a very pedestrian friendly town.

Today we start the off looking at woodshops of various sizes, capabilities and specialties. Wednesday we will spend all day at the Homag plant in Stuttgart learning about the different machines they offer.

It should be a very interesting week. Already I’ve gained many valuable insights just through the contact with the other tour participants. We come from all different areas of the US (including a contingent from Hawaii) and represent all different sizes companies and business specialties.

One of the things I’ve learned is just how much I can learn from talking with other people who do similar things as we do in our business. Not just about the specifics of production of wood parts, but about business strategies, management styles and lot’s of other great stuff that I’ll talk about throughout the week.

Alan