Sunday, November 13, 2016

AIA Controversy

The interesting news this week comes from the AIA and their membership.  The AIA put out a formal statement commenting on the recent US election and there’s been some backlash online from it.  With the intensity of both sides of the election is still holding true, I have a feeling we’re only at the start of this specific adventure.   There’s tons of politics here I can get into, but I’m not doing that.   I’ll only weigh in from a PR standpoint and my take there is I have no idea why the AIA would make a statement WHEN they did.  The timing absolutely made no sense, there was no urgency or call for their opinion at that time, and they were obviously not prepared for their statement to go viral within their community like it has.  So lessons here are- you gotta know your customer base or your membership- and you have to have a sense of timing-- and it’s surely looking like in this case the AIA did not on either case.  What happens next in the AIA world will bear some watching....

Elsewhere… and moving quickly to something else!

--  After GlassBuild America I got a call with a great question I could not answer…. It is do we as an industry know what our average opening size is?  And has that opening size changed at all in the last few years or is it expected to change going forward.  The angle here is there’s this major push for oversize.  Every one seemingly is addressing it one way or another, so the trend is there.  But I can’t find or figure out what averages are?  So if you have some insight on yesterday, today and tomorrow with regards to the average opening- please drop me a line….

--  The November issue of Glass Magazine is out and once again quite a bit of excellent content to take in.  The issue is dedicated to the “Top Metal Companies” so some interesting profiles both on companies and projects.  Also I liked the quick pieces from industry heavyweights Joe Erb of Quanex and Chris Giovannielli of Kawneer.  Plus the Q&A with Michael Spellman from IGE is a must read.

--  The ad of the month award was a tough one with many strong candidates.  People ask me how I choose this.  First thing I do is flip through the magazine without stopping to read.  I see if any ad jumps at me to make me stop.  I then note the ads that do and then review and decide.  And I do try to share the honors as some companies could win every month.  So this time around the nod goes to Dormakaba.  I liked the ad- caught my eye with a simple title.  And I will admit I had no idea this was an actual company of DORMA and Kaba, so I learned something too!

--  Great resource that I was reminded about via email blast (and on those e mails- if done right, very effective) from Vitro. (PPG)  The “Search Products” tool that breaks down products, performance, and aesthetics.  Very helpful!

--  The new Apple headquarter campus is coming along.  This week new drone footage was released and it’s worth the watch.  Right now the site is ugly with dirt everywhere- once they fill that in with the proposed green spaces- the building and environment should be absolutely awesome.

--  Last this week- just a programming note.  No blog next week, though if news breaks I will post something and also have comments on twitter.  Otherwise I’ll be back in this space for the last week of November.  HAPPY THANKSGIVING to my friends in the US!

LINKS of the WEEK

Well something I never thought would be outsourced is going that way…. The casket.

The Cubs won.  This guy called it.  In 1993.

Kudos to Kit Kat for using the viral parts of social media the right way.  But I gotta say that is waaaay too much chocolate.  And I love chocolate!

VIDEO of the WEEK

This is 45 seconds worth of fun video action between a little guy and a garbage can.  Classic stuff here. 


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