BEC Wrap

BEC 2009 is in the books and I really believe the show was everything that it was promoted to be. The networking was top notch. Just look around the room and you saw business in motion. The education and information delivered as well. All in all it was a tremendous experience and if you chose not to come you really missed out. As I told the attendees at the start of the show- I really believe that the smartest companies in the industry were in the audience because they were the ones to recognize the value. And in a tough economy people that take the time to work the angles, network and educate will be the ones that win in the end.

More BEC recap..

-- Good parts were: The hotel from the point of ease of getting to your room without having to take a cab… the scenery.. . Especially if you were a guy… the speakers… Dick Vermeil delivered an excellent keynote speech. He also was also classy enough to hang around and take pictures and give autographs. Russ Huffer of Apogee gave a presentation that everyone raved about afterwards… Henry Taylor continued to be the “King of LEED” with his timely update, while Julie Schimmelpennigh educated the crowd on some very cool new window technology and also got people clapping in some sort of rhythm. Also the presentation by Culp and Carney gave people more insight to what could be nightmarish times ahead. Last, as USGNN covered Russ Ebeid’s speech was deep and insightful and created a buzz that will be felt for quite a while.

Other BEC/GANA thoughts…

-- Brad Austin of Viracon deserves props for his leadership at the head of GANA in 2008. He did a tremendous job positioning the group and keeping good things on track. I fully expect his successor, Mike Ondrus of Glasstech to carry it on and forward.

-- Megan and Drew from USGNN were everywhere. I do think it is just a matter of time before Drew gets his satellite uplink and we’re doing live shots from these events….

-- Next GANA Event is April with the Glass Fabrication and Educational conference. Again a good one if you want to learn and network.

-- A huge thanks to GANA staff… Brian Pittman- the AV Mastermind, was in his glory at 5AM on Monday morning as 8 worker bees took direction from him as he set up the video and audio. Ashley Charest who somehow keeps everything organized and flowing despite attempts from certain people (ummm wonder who that is) to throw her off. Sara Neiswanger was hustling all over directing people to the right places…. Urmilla and Greg were those calm beacons that always greeted me with a smile, and Bill Yanek now through 2 BEC’s, he’s old hat- plus he delivered an eye opening piece on GANA and energy. In fact any presentation that shows a picture of Jack Lambert is awesome in my book. Last Thanks goes to Carol Land. She always takes care of me and does all she can for the other 500+ people. I just love having her on my side!

Now to the “Page 6” portion…

-- Man it was great to see the folks I saw…. Got to talk briefly with Ron McCann of Viracon and told him all I have to do is mention is name and BAM I get like 1000 extra hits. Also Alice Dickerson of Vitro America introduced herself to me, she mentioned she reads some of these blogs and considering my past I can understand why its only “some”…. The crew from Technoform were there en masse but I had a moment of missing my main man Milind! Speaking of missing, Jim Stathopoulos from Ajay was supposed to be in but had something come up… your presence was missed no doubt! And Bruce Mikels of BDM also missed because he would rather go to the Glass show in Atlanta (commence abuse) Caught up with John Dwyer of Syracuse Glass, John was one of those guys who led GANA to this spot with his past involvements….without his efforts we don't have what we have.... Always nice to see Mike Rupert of PPG, now the crew there can flip from abusing Kevin Brooks about his appearance on this blog to Mike. Seeing Chris Knitter of Central Pacific Glass is awesome… I appreciate so much that Chris and his company support BEC every year like they do. .. Brian Craft of Guardian has always been one of my guys and now he added a pretty cool goatee to his look… I think he could double as a spy in Bond flick…. At the airport it was like a BEC after party… amazing to see all of the players still milling about. I ended up on a plane with Joe Staffileno of Zeledyne (AKA the King of West Virginia) along with Mike Krasula and Rachel Hepner of Pilkington NA. Actually had the supreme honor of sitting next to Rachel and watched in utter amazement as she figured out some complex puzzle in like 30 seconds… look for her on the game show circuit- girl has skillz.

-- I will probably do a “normal” blog post later in the week depending on how the digging out of my life goes after 6 days in Vegas.

-- Anyway I would like to thank everyone who attended and everyone who took the time to visit with me and catch up. It truly was enjoyable. And a special thanks to everyone who’s following along on the blog and end up taking heat from their co-workers because of my mentions. (I think Jay Phillips was hid from me on purpose for that reason… I mean I saw him for a split second and then BAM he was gone.) I really appreciate it.

-- Last the BEC is a fantastic event and GANA a great group and only good things are coming. Henry Taylor of Kawneer takes over and will do a fantastic job and I look forward to sitting in the crowd and rooting him on!

VIDEO:

At the start of Russ Ebeid's presentation he showed an awesome video and many people wanted it for themselves... well here you go... very cool video!!