Sunday, February 05, 2017

It's BEC Week

This week is one the major events in our industry with the GANA BEC Conference in Las Vegas.  I have been fortunate enough to be involved with this event for many years and while so much has changed in our industry and world, the key advantage of this conference remains… the incredible ability to network.  Yes the education is great and the speakers are usually very engaging but the chance to see people from companies up and down the supply chain- all in one place- is huge.  Basically it’s one of the two times in our industry (GlassBuild America being the other) where you can attend an event that allows you stay on top of everything happening in our world.  I’ll have my annual breakdown of all of the takeaways of BEC next week…

Elsewhere…

--  One group of people and company I like visiting with at BEC is Viracon.  And I have to pass major props to Kelly Schuller and every employee there for their incredible charitable contributions.  Viracon employees donated an incredible $108,692.60  to the United Way in 2016.  This is simply awesome and everyone involved there should be commended for his or her effort.

--  Time to look at the latest Glass Magazine… first what got me was the cover shot- a beautiful classic looking project in Montreal; it looks old school but performs like a 2017 champ.  That led to a fantastic story from Katy Devlin that not only broke that building down but some others as the battle for advanced energy performance in buildings continues.  There are several other stories that are worth checking out as well- and I plan on calling them out more in the next few weeks- including the look at the I-Codes and how we as an industry should be approaching them.   Whether you get the magazine or grab online- make sure you are checking it out, too much important content to miss!

--  Ad of the month… is actually a tie.  Loved the effect of the TGP ad as soon as I cracked open the magazine.  Slick 2 page spread with a catchy picture and tag line.  Nice!  But I also really liked what Schuco did with the use of old computer discs- basically pushing the idea of don’t get left behind.  While many do that sort of ad, this particular visual worked for me and caught my eye.

--  Check out the video of the week below from Guardian.  It is undoubtedly a promotion video on their work in the middle east but it’s a great quick watch with stunning views of the buildings and facades in that region.  Being the glass and glazing geek that I am, just seeing some of these projects is really breathtaking.  Plus I love looks at other plants and layouts.  Good watch for sure and a VERY well done video.  Wish I had those skills!

--  For my fellow road warriors… did you happen to see the airplane row of the future?  Check out this link and let me know what you think.  This looks to be too advanced for the stodgy airline industry….

--  Super article here on the “death” of Facebook- I know many who feel same way.

Last this week… Super Bowl... WOW.  I mean that was beyond words.  I feel for my friends that are Falcon fans- tough loss.  Happy for folks like Steven Brenner and Brian Shaw- big time Pats fans who are on cloud nine right now.  Commercial wise they were pretty awful all night.  5 million for 30 seconds and the lack of creativity was stunning.  The folks doing creative for ads in Glass Magazine are loads better.  If I had to choose a few "winners" I would say the Tide, Kings Hawaiian, Spud McKenzie, and Ford "Stuck" commercials were best with decent efforts by Buick (Cam Newton) and the live Adam Driver spot.  Still I gotta think these agencies have to go back to the drawing board for the future.

LINKS of the WEEK

Uh oh… Bacon is actually bad?  Nooooooooooooooooo! 

If you are a watcher of “Last Week Tonight” with John Oliver you will get a chuckle out of this story about TRONC and an odd tweet.

This really happened and was not an episode of a show on TV… yet….

VIDEO of the WEEK

As noted previously… here is the video via Guardian on glass in the middle east…





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