Next Up

We’ve gone from GlassBuild season to the onset of Greenbuild this week. Should be a very interesting show in that it’s in Toronto and attracting potentially a much different audience and demographic than in years past. Also will be watching to see if this crowd is still dominated by youth or if the more seasoned professionals are breaking down and joining the green revolution. Lastly, fast forward to a month from now when all of the American exhibitors and attendees get their cell phone bills and they are racked by their carrier for the international calls! Yep that could be the everlasting memory of this event! In any case, next week in this space I’ll have the breakdown of the latest gathering in our world.

Elsewhere…

-- Lost in the excitement of GlassBuild and all of the news in our industry in the last few months was the announcement that Glassweek is no more and being replaced by an Annual Conference. Plus this conference will stand-alone and not be connected to BEC like it was for the last few years. It’s a move that some had wanted for a while and others who didn’t like the connection to BEC really wanted. It is something to watch as adding another travel need in already tight budgets will be a challenge but the technical work so many do at GANA surely will be a factor in the decision to attend. Will it eat into the BEC attendance? Possibly. Anyway you slice it, this is a bold move by the gang at GANA to evolve.

-- My gosh is the DOE getting skewered like crazy or what on Solyndra? Even at my worst I don’t think I beat them up this bad… I’m almost feeling bad for the guys there… almost.

-- Congrats to John Bush on his new appointment at GGI. I have known John for years starting from the days on the board at GANA and know that he is a tremendous talent. It’s a coup for sure for GGI getting him on board full time.

-- I know there are several proud University of Michigan graduates and huge fans that read this, along with a lot of people that were involved in the remodel of the Michigan football stadium. This past weekend I was lucky enough to go to a game at the refurbished stadium- tremendous work done there architecturally and the atmosphere was second to none. So to the folks who had a part in the rebuild, congrats and the folks who are grads and fans- man you are lucky. Great time and the team looks super!

-- Last this week… kudos to the gang at SAGE on the launch of their new website. It’s at www.Sageglass.com and it is a very slick, clean, and impressive site. Sorry Earnest Thompson, Chris Dolan and the folks at Guardian, you have been knocked off the perch for best industry site now. These are heady times for the dynamic glass world and we’re just at the start. Soladigm is gearing up with their new plant, Pleotint is making deals, and obviously I have tremendous faith and confidence in the folks at RavenBrick to be a force. Add that to the positive forecasts about this industry segment and things look very bright. But now we as an industry have a new website to try and knock off the top!

LINKS of the WEEK

-- Amazingly sad. A manual from the labor department making fun of previously sickened workers.

-- You actually see this style of story often but it never gets old. Player get injured, unfairly, but that injury allows doctors to catch something that could’ve led to death. So all ends well. Good read as always.

-- Man brings a 9month old baby to the bar… yep this is not ending well…

BONUS LINK: The Sexy Chicken controversy…. At this point you want to tell PETA to focus their energies on legitimate issues of animal mistreatment…. When you read this story you’ll see why that group takes 3 steps back for every one step forward. Yeesh.

VIDEO of the WEEK


Will be hard to top the treadmill fail from last week, that got more comments to me than any video I have ran in a while! I think this one has potential… inside the Washington Monument during the earthquake from last month. Fast forward to the 1:42 mark… wild!