As promised... Thoughts after day 1 of the International Builders Show.
- All of the major players are here booth wise but one thing was missing. People. Day 1 was slower than I can ever remember. Not sure if maybe people were caught in different areas than me, or worn out after long opening ceremonies, but the floor was not as packed as years past.
- Not a lot of China. The dishware variety and the country. I liked that.
- The economic vibe from the show floor was of a positive one, slow traffic not withstanding. Most folks I chatted with felt confident that the residential side of the business will be strong again soon, with some even stating that it never got weak for them.
- Guardian made a major statement boothwise, a very strong showing. The relevance is that for most folks who attend the industry functions like GlassBuild America or even the AIA show, do not see Guardian there. So seeing their presence here was a pleasant surprise.
- There's not once piece of real estate inside the convention hall that does not have a poster or advertisement on it. Even the steps have ads on the carpet. Plus the bottled water was even sponsored. This is a marketing persons dream and nightmare all at the same time.
- Another nice booth was Fleetwood Windows. They had a small crowd ogling their huge bent sliding glass doors.
- On the Deco side, the gang from Stained Glass Overlay had good variety at their location and a cool theme, with all of their folks dressed like lab techs or professors. It was eye catching.
Other than that day 1 was uneventful.
Other items for the week:
Once again China continues to be a hot subject. There's no doubt that e-mails I get for this blog are China related 3 to 1.
Frequent blog commenter, Jim Fairley sent me a great link to a BBC story about the United States taking on China and their subsidies at the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The entire piece is here
www.news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6326213.stm
But some great paragraphs from it are:
China uses tax legislation to "encourage exports and discriminate against imports
Called for a "level playing field"
"China's subsidies can particularly distort trade conditions for small and medium-sized American enterprises and their workers."
By requesting a consultation with the WTO, the US is starting the first phase of a legal complaint.
Ah maybe some progress huh? Only time will tell but maybe, just maybe we are headed in the right direction.
Ok to finish, lets go lighter... The Super Bowl is done as is the Super Bowl commercials which I found weak this year. So I went and found a classic Super Bowl commercial from the past to share and enjoy:
Possibly another update from Orlando later in the week.
1 comment:
Speaking of monkey's we have a commercial here for an autogroup and they have the "Trunk Monkey", do a search for it in UTube, it's Suburban Autogroup. You better have depends on when you see it. For the situation when you are in traffic and a road rager comes at you at a light, hit that trusty "Trunk Monkey" button and out of the trunk comes a monkey with a tire iron and, well, takes care of your problem for ya. i'll try to post on Pundit.
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