Saturday, December 10, 2016

The 2016 MVP is....

Last week I announced the group of candidates that came close but ultimately did not win the 2016 Industry MVP.  As I noted then, so many great people and companies are worthy and picking one is truly a challenge.  For this year I went with a person that I have seen first hand making a difference in our world.  This person is active at the trade group level- taking a leadership role and bringing a passionate approach to it.  This person also uses his voice online to educate the industry on issues and situations that we all really need to pay attention to.  In fact he took one of my pet causes and has brought tons of attention to the holes there and did it in classy but forceful way.  Plus our winner is just flat out a good person and I have been a fan of his for years.  So without any further build up, the winner of the 2016 Industry MVP is Chuck Knickerbocker of TGP.  Chuck will probably want to kill me for heaping all this praise, but it is deserved!  Also props must go to Chuck’s employer- TGP.  They obviously see the great value in having Chuck out and active in the industry- so a thank you and a nod to the management and team there.  Congratulations Chuck- keep up the good work at GANA, your blog, and hammering on NFRC and the other issues that concern our world daily.

Elsewhere…

--  While I am in the handing out good news mode… major kudos to Bendheim on the release of their updated website.  The new site is fantastic.  Loaded with info and details.  Building websites are not easy.  Populating them with great resources is a massive challenge.  Congrats to the folks at Bendheim for the excellent work!

--  Following up on the AIA story and their membership “uprising” over the post presidential press release.  The Media Relations Director of AIA resigned last week and according to sources in published reports it was because the AIA ignored his direction in the whole process.  Like I noted when this happened- this was a massive PR failure on many levels and continues to be one as negative press is still active.  As one commenter online noted- “Sometimes its worthwhile to listen to your PR expert.”

--  I recently saw the new movie “Dr. Strange” and one glass related item stood out for me.  In many of the stunts, it looked to me like it was good old annealed glass being broken out instead of the usual tempered.  This movie had a ton of computer-generated graphics so maybe that was it, but it was jarring to see large annealed shards breaking in scenes with human interaction.

--  In my first posts of 2017 I will review what we experienced in 2016 and hit on the trends expected in the New Year. One trend will be advanced social media- like Periscope.  The great John Wheaton is making a major effort with that platform and the episodes I have been lucky enough to catch have been interesting and thought provoking.   More on this and others on that post- but follow John at @johnlwheaton1 on twitter and you’ll get the notifications of his next Periscope.

--  So this will be the last scheduled post for 2016.  Obviously that may change, as there are at least 2 major industry transactions that may take place before year end, so if and when they do break, I’ll make some comments on twitter and here.  I truly enjoy the communication with all of you and I thank you for your support.  I believe 2017 will be an excellent year and I am excited to experience it.  (Well all but the part of my daughter going to college in 2017.  I am NOT excited about that…)  In any case I would like to take this time to wish all of my readers a HAPPY and HEALTHY holiday season and year ahead.   Take care and enjoy!

LINKS of the WEEK

Not sure this got enough press thanks to everyone wanting to cover “fake news” and all.  An American Hero passes away.  I was lucky enough to see his last launch in person and it was very cool.  RIP John Glenn.

The icey pile up in Montreal made the social media spin last week.  This is wild to watch… hopefully none of my good friends from that area got caught up in this wow.

The hot holiday gift and a person trying to corner the market- good story on karma striking back.

VIDEO of the WEEK

Short stupid video with golf on ice… I assume this is a course in North Dakota in September….








No comments: