Day 1 at Glassbuild

Well day 1 at Glassbuild in Las Vegas is in the books and here's my rundown...

-- Solid crowd... busier than most expected- especially in the AM. The million dollar question everyone had was... will it be busy on Tuesday or was this an aftershock from people coming to Vegas for the weekend, doing the show on Monday and then leaving. I think Tuesday will be decent, but I get a feeling that Weds could be ugly. Still I think the exhibitors will be happy based on today.

-- I know people take tons of time to set up booths but this show should really be 2 days instead of 3.

-- On the odd side, the registration for the show was INSIDE the hall.. set up down the middle. Obviously a major exhibitor had to pull out to give a massive amount of floor space up like this. What was comical was that I walked right in- no badge- no security- and did not get stopped until I hit the center of the floor. I don't think I have even seen a show with its registration inside- but hey if you have the space- use it.

-- Not there... no Starship Enterprise from Oldcastle. Damn that is one that never fails to amaze. Also no Greg Carney (GANA) or Joe Staffileno (Zeledyne)- shocking absences really. But I have been using Greg's identity throughout Vegas and will be at the hottest clubs tonight thanks to his name...

-- Hot Spots... the Viracon booth was swamped- to get in to say Hi I had to go through one of those Disneyworld ques. Hopefully all of those customers are buying that gang the beer tonight.
The Diptech booth had a lot of buzz around it... if that process works it could be pretty interesting. Scott Surma holding court everywhere... though he brought no pictures of his newest baby- so he should lose points for that. And last Walker Glass had people coming through all day- though I really believe if those guys get out of the glass business they could be high end fashion advisors.

-- Tough spots- If you are at the show, please try and go visit USGlass... I believe their booth is out near the Grand Canyon. I think its a different time zone there too.

-- The communist Chinese were everywhere... my favorite was a company that had an americanized name (not going to give them pub) but then had the Chinese flag EVERYWHERE all over the booth... amazing. But don't worry when they screw up your order, they'll suddenly not be too American.

More tomorrow...