Glassweek Update

Well we are halfway through Glassweek and speeding towards BEC… some quick thoughts…

-- The first ever Energy Committee meeting, highlighted by a talk from Cheryl Kennedy of NREL and Tex Wilkins from DOE was fantastic. A packed room held on to every word those two said. Possibly the only scary thing was I think both made Solar sound very “easy” to get into- which quite frankly it is not. It may seem so, but I think people will find the barriers are not as achievable as it looks. Still a super turnout.

-- The attitude here overall has been solid- very little doomsday and mostly people trying to ride this storm out. That is a good sign since panic is obviously not the best approach for anyone.

-- By the way GANA has a very cool website for Energy news… you can access it HERE.

-- And speaking of GANA, once again the work by folks like Brian Pittman, Ashley Charest and Carol Land has been tremendous. Good people who deserve props.

-- In case you were wondering… the Walker Glass fashion plates did not disappoint. I came here for 6 days all packed in a carry on. They came for 2 nights and packed a suitcase each that could house a small family. I guess style has its pains eh?

Now time for who I saw…. Like Page 6 for the glass industry….

-- I got to see Ren Bartoe dressed to the nines for the formal dinner… but even with that he sported a gold tie in honor of the Super Bowl champs… saw Mike Nicklas and some other guy from Berkowitz. It’s tough on poor Mike that he has to do all the talking for that group. He needs to have that other fellow come out of his shell…. Got to hang out with Joe Erb from Edgetech during the Energy meetings… he suffered through all of my whines and moans as the Solar Panel made getting into solar sound as easy as buying a cup of coffee…. Speaking of solar I got to talk to Kevin Brooks of PPG… he is their market development person for that stuff and they really have the right guy there… good man and he’ll have some serious success at getting PPG deep into that market… had the pleasure of talking to one of my favorite people. Dr. Helen Sanders of Sage. As everyone knows Sage is a big time favorite product of mine (I really believe it will be a dominant force out there) and so it’s always great to chat with Helen. Though I was bummed that her compatriot Maure Creager did not make the trip… Always great to see Henry Gorry from Guardian.. he is truly a CLASS guy.... Margaret Webb of IGMA was here and it’s amazing how many meetings that she has to attend- especially recently… I have to wonder if she can remember what city she is in sometimes with all the travel… Nils Petermann of the Alliance to Save Energy(and NFRC Board member) was in attendance… I have always found Nils to be friendly, thoughtful and intelligent and this time was no different… which makes me wonder- he along with a couple of other NFRC board members are like that (Kerry Haglund comes to mind in the same vein) yet somehow that Board makes the most illogical calls… I guess somehow they all follow people like Jeff Baker… shame.

-- Last a major thanks to the Vockler family and ICD (and for those of you who somehow don’t know ICD IS OPACI-COAT Spandrel among other great products. They took me (probably as a charitable donation thing- they get a tax break for it under the new stimulus plan) to the Elton John show at Caesars Palace. Simply incredible… Elton still has it… but the videos he plays while he sings are so bizarre that the word “bizarre” is just not strong enough. Still a great show- despite the stunning omission of “Crocodile Rock” from the playlist. Thank you Larry, Trish and Kris- I am grateful.

-- BEC gets going with an 8AM Sunday Technical meeting- then the cocktail party later that night, then the fun goes all day Monday and Tuesday… should be an interesting time.