Different phases of wood processing can be improved and optimized if photonics is employed. The treesβ health can be defined and categorized by light imagers mounted on drones for forests and woods monitoring. Once the wood has been processed in lumbers, the quality can be checked with different tools, like tomography, hyperspectral and x-ray imaging. In further steps, the wood can be for example employed for furniture manufacturing and different processes, such as lacquering, require in-line monitoring systems. In this sector, spectroscopy combined with AI is playing a major role. These and other photonics technologies and applications interesting for the full value chain of woodworking will be the topic of this meeting.