The End of an Era

Several weeks ago I mentioned that the IGMA Conference in New Orleans was going to be a strong one and from all reports that filtered back to me it was.  There was quite a bit of news made at the event including John Kent from IGCC talking about the never-ending adventure of certification and Mike Burk of Quanex (one of my all time favorite conference speakers actually) on safety including how incentives may NOT work and danger to the neck area.  Both certification and safety are major concerns and issues in our world for sure.  But that said, when I had heard that Ray Wakefield of Trulite was attending his last IGMA, I was really thrown.  To me that’s the biggest news of the event.  Personally I can’t believe it as Ray is an industry institution and not having him involved in things like IGMA blow my mind.  He has forgotten more about the technical side of glass, IG and jobsites than I’d ever be able to amass.  I wish you well Ray- these deals won’t be the same without you!

Elsewhere

--  And let’s give props to outgoing IGMA President Dave Cooper of Guardian.  In his tenure at the top, the meeting agendas were strong and interesting.  The next President (I have not heard yet who that may be) will have really big shoes to fill.

--  Good news that the Dodge Index went up in January.  Again trying to stay positive with my thoughts towards our economy.

--  On the negative side, gas prices, even before Winter Storm Nemo, was inching towards $4 per gallon again.  In Michigan we saw almost a .50 increase in 2 weeks time.  Ummmm can anyone explain why?  That whole deal really is amazing.

-- A very strong effort by the team at Glass Magazine on their latest effort featuring the Top Fabricators in our industry.  They have now made this yearly edition something that can’t be missed.  I really enjoyed the poll questions, some of which had to be tough to answer.  The one on “greatest challenges” as an example had to be a brutal one to answer since so many of the choices are kinda like a 1 and 1A sort of thing.  I’m stunned that the “Finding Financing” answer was so low, but the other choices were surely more crucial.

--  But on the same poll the one question that wasn’t hard to answer was the “What are fabricators future capital acquisition plans?” The dominating answer was adding new products and product lines.  I think that is so dead on and we see it daily, companies are hungry to diversify and jump into new business segments and I believe we are only seeing the start of it. 

If you have not seen the issue yet, check it out HERE.

--  The Big 10 in basketball is like the SEC in football- just stacked.  What a wild March this is going to be.  Just thinking about the brackets is exciting.

--  Last, I have to admit and I may be the only mid 40 year old guy around who would do this, but I really dig Taylor Swift’s new song “I Knew You Were Trouble”  - just a great tune in my opinion and man it does stick in the head.

LINKS of the WEEK

--  Pretty comical… something a newspaper is still good for.

--  This story brings up a ton of issues- including if Marijuana was legal, would stuff like this happen?  My guess is yes.  Society right now is NOT a pretty place.

--  This is so wrong it hurts. Schools taking the ownership of kids work.  For future profit I am sure.  Maybe stick to updating the curriculum to the year 2013 first eh?

VIDEO of the WEEK

The perils of being a pro golfer playing one of the greatest courses in the world.  Phil Mickelson takes a hard spill while looking for his ball.  The replay starts at :11 in and I think ole Phil will be sore tomorrow.  Ouch.