PORTLAND, OR — Billed as the largest gathering of cross-laminated timber and other mass timber experts in the world, the International Mass Timber Conference is coming to Portland next week. With more than 1,200 experts from 22 countries expected to attend the conference (March 19-21). …The keynote speaker on Thursday is Paul Williamson, Managing Director, Modular Housing for Swan Housing in the U.K. …Swan designs modular two-story houses and some apartments which are built in a factory in Basildon, Essex, just east of London. Swan is a housing association, which in the U.K. provides low-cost social housing for people in need of a home.