Sunday, October 30, 2016

Great Industry News, Great Websites & More

One of the bigger stories that came out of GlassBuild America was the co-locating of the GANA Fall Conference with GlassBuild in 2017.  The Fall Conference brings some crucial technical pieces to the forefront, along with other important industry news and updates.  Having it now integrated with the largest trade show in North America will surely open it up to more people who had never attended before, those that used to attend but scheduling prevented them from doing so, or additional members from a single company when normally a company would only send one person.  Moves like this are very good for the industry- we have so much out there education wise, but I think only a small percentage of people are taking advantage of it.  Hopefully with a wider base things like this and the newly re-launched MyGlassClass.com will reach the larger audience and we can continue to grow and prosper as an industry!

Elsewhere…

--  Speaking of education and growth, one group who I admire is the Efficient Window Collaborative.  I have written about them a few times here and I am fan.  Recently they launched an updated website, and it is absolutely fantastic.  Please check it out at http://www.efficientwindows.org and remember this too is a great training tool for your folks and resource for your customers.  Kudos to Kerry Haglund and team for a job well done!

--  Also on the website resource side, Mark Spencer of SAPA turned me on to www.Shapes.Al and it is a really interesting and helpful resource for all things aluminum.  They took an interesting approach with writing more feature like pieces than technical articles.  Lots of content and worth visiting.

--  The industry lost another long-time player last week with the passing of Tom Petersen.  Tom spent 46 years in the glazing world and was extremely well known and respected in the Missouri/Kansas region.  He will certainly be missed and condolences to his family and friends. 

--  Anyone else suffering on the health care costs side?  My monthly costs will now be 110% more per month than they were 3 years ago.  It really is an issue that has gotten lost in the absolute mess of the US election.

--  As you may have seen the Architectural Billings Index did decline again last month making it now into a mini-trend of 2 downers in a row.  The analysts think the election may have some bearing on that- I guess we’ll see.  Overall though the metrics out there are solid as Dodge did their annual outlook conference and from the reports I have seen, they are still bullish on 2017/2018.  I have been gathering those reports and will have some additional takes on that on next weeks post.

--  Last this week… amazingly this blog just celebrated its 11th anniversary.  Every time I note a milestone, I seriously get more blown away that I’m still plugging along and this thing is still alive.  Anyway I thank you for following along and putting up with me every week.  It still is my therapy and while my content has surely changed (I’m much more kind) I hope you can find at least a nugget or two worthwhile each week.    Thanks again for reading- I truly appreciate it!

LINKS of the WEEK

--  Thank you to Paul Wagner who left a comment on the Glass Magazine.com posting of this blog.  Really interesting stuff here on solar roadways…. These need to happen!

--  Man dressed as a pine tree.  Blocks traffic.  People have issues. 

--  Great story on the backgrounds of the old Neiman-Marcus cookie recipe debacle.  Company was brilliant in their handling!

VIDEO of the WEEK

If you happened to miss GlassBuild or you missed the video recaps- here’s Day 3.. a look back at a fun day and great show!


No comments: