Zoom into the Future

As you’ve read throughout, this issue celebrates our future. Some of the 40 individuals making a difference today will eventually change our industry, so it’s important that we introduce them and get them engaged in
building our future.

The questions I have for them and you:


• What training tools will you need to be successful?
• How will you let others know about the opportunities in the wood flooring industry and get new youth engaged in the industry?
• How do you want the NWFA to communicate with you?
• What will our NWFA community look like in five years?
• What should NWFA develop today to make sure we have an inclusive culture in the future?

The world has changed drastically in 2020. It feels as if we’ve jumped five years ahead in the future instead of one revolution around the sun.

So, how do we capture the change and lessons from 2020 and learn what we need to be successful in the future?

One thing is for sure, we’ve learned that we need community, family, and friends, even when we can’t be together with them in the same room. While video conferencing has been around for years, most of us didn’t Zoom in order to be connected to each other. Now that we’ve gotten used to it, how will technology integrate with our daily lives in a more functional way? We’ve used it for a crisis; now how do we use it normally?

The opportunities for NWFA to provide new formats of education now are endless with our members used to plugging in to our digital events, thought-leader Zooms, and our free Live Edge series on tech, products, and management. In fact, utilization of the NWFA Online University more than tripled during the pandemic lockdown.

One thought that we’re talking about: NWFA could start to provide individual companies with customized training done by an NWFA regional instructor or topic expert via Zoom or with a live/digital combo.

We’ve already created digital ways to achieve some NWFA certifications. Why not do more?

The cost of doing something like this has been reduced significantly with the acceptance of digital meetings and interaction. Let’s take this opportunity to think forward.

As we head into a new year, there are so many opportunities that didn’t exist a year ago. Get involved in shaping your industry’s future. Call, email, text, or set up a Zoom to let us know your ideas for shaping our community’s future. Use the info@nwfa.org email or email me directly at michael.martin@nwfa.org.

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