Greenbuild Day 2 and beyond

Welcome to Greenbuild with 25,000+ people on hand.. pretty much all of the major players of our industry are here along with any green scheme that can be had. Anyway here are some quick hits on what I saw and experienced so far…

-- Once again it’s a goofy convention center layout. A gigantic hall in the basement and a secondary hall on the third floor (5 escalators up). Yep that’s one horrid layout- not as bad as San Antonio’s famous “kids room” set up for AIA a few years ago but not good either.

-- As mentioned in my post yesterday, I got lucky and for the only time in my life I find my booth next to Edgetech. I’ll never get next to them at Glassbuild because they live in that high rent district and they don’t let my kind in there… but here they are right next door and with a very cool mock up showing the strength of their Tri Seal spacer. That thing is a show stopper for sure. Anyway they have not called show security on me… yet. Still awesome to have a popular booth right next store to draw from!

-- There’s a sign at the front of the halls that say “No Suitcasing” - Which means against show rules to go try and sell someone materials in their booth… so I guess it’s the green way of saying “No Soliciting?” But seriously isn’t that the point of a trade show? Attract customers but also see vendors and have the chance to pick up new customers? (Actually have a picture but for some reason I can't upload it)

-- The drinks at the show come in cups made from corn. How do I know this? It says it on there. Wild stuff.

-- How green is this? After the show Tuesday night- tons of people parked in a parking garage… all trying to leave at the same time- all sitting… cars idling… emissions everywhere…. It took us almost an hour to get out… What do you think the carbon footprint was on that bad boy? Gonna have to have a lot more cups made from “corn” to make up for that debacle.

-- One person I did not get to see today was Chris McMahon from Technoform…. but all of Phoenix did see him as the local TV station interviewed him. Rumor has it he has now hired an agent. Video in case your curious is HERE.

-- Last for this for now (more next week I am sure) kudos to the gang at Viracon for following the rules. Greenbuild said that you were not supposed to bring any paper or brochures to the show... and basically EVERYONE ignored them... except the shrewd folks at Viracon who left the paper at home making them the hero of the environmental crowd! (Note I did not plan on bringing any paper but when I arrived Monday and saw everyone had paper- I relented- dang peer pressure!!)

Elsewhere……

-- A few years I blogged about going to a baseball game here in Arizona and while it was 110 degrees outside, the roof of the stadium was open and the AC was blasting… at that same venue is where Al Gore gave his keynote address tonight. With record highs here, I wonder if the AC was blasting and how in any case that’s explained as green or good for the environment.

-- You may have caught in the comments from my last post about NFRC extending their elections a week due to lack of quorum. Well it’s true and it’s absolutely hilarious. Why would anyone want to vote in an election that no one is running in? If you only have one choice, what’s the point? But don’t worry somewhere in DC, Marc LaFrance is mumbling to himself about how great the NFRC is… yep they sure are Marc… Anyway this is what the NFRC wanted- they ramrodded the dissenters out and now they have their perfect little group, hopefully the world is watching.


-- Congrats to Bob Larson, saw on USGNN he is now at Texas Tempering as VP of Operations. I was on the GANA Board with Bob for a few years and he is a class character. Best of luck in your new gig!


-- Also on USGNN, the note on Syracuse Glass and their 100th anniversary… props to John Dwyer and his family on the awesome accomplishment. I get to see John once or twice a year at GANA events and he always has a kind word for me… which means he’s in the minority… in any case running a business is brutal and to make it long term like John and his family have deserve a major pat on back!


Off to the Links


-- Like it or hate it, the UFC (Cage Fighting) sure has some characters- like this guy who was so down on his luck before his last fight he was eating the yummy (not)combo of Rice and Ketchup. Interesting story, this guy could be the “Rocky” of the sport with stuff like this.

-- I live in the country so I am always afraid I’ll hit a deer with my car… but this couple in Oklahoma had bigger problems, like almost hitting and ELEPHANT… yep an Elephant!


-- Yep Al Gore and the “green” folks here at the show would be aghast if they read this article on a “green” couple being forced to drive to their recycling center… oh my!

Video of the week


When I saw this one, I actually sent it to the “Link Chick” as she is a Soccer expert. You may have heard about the women’s college soccer player who played VERY rough last week. Well if you haven’t seen it, here it is… absolutely amazing… and the big thing for both me and the Link Chick was how did the Refs miss this and how could the opposing team just “take it”… wild stuff.