Building the Image

As many in our industry gathered in Orlando for the AIA show my thoughts wandered over to a subject that I have covered a few times here- the seemingly age old question of how to attract more people to our industry.  It frustrates me to no end that young people would rather have a dead end job in a gigantic company than an opportunity to learn and grow in an industry that would truly embrace them.  Evidently we are not alone in dealing with this issue as the US Chamber of Commerce is touring the country and having “listening” sessions with different business leaders to get ideas on how to make skilled trades and the less popular industry segments one that can attract the work force they need to survive and thrive.  Ideas that have come from some of these sessions include promotional campaigns from an industry standpoint and public demonstrations (at malls and other busy retail areas) of what the industries are about.  So two things to consider here… 1- We as an industry need to come together and build a campaign to promote ourselves and all the good that we do.  Hopefully the talks with NGA and GANA lead to an agreement because one strong voice there would surely help.  2- Other industries are stepping up, so not only will we be competing with the “sexy” businesses but also other trades similar to ours.  I will be curious what the US Chamber reports back when their tour is done and if anything of relevance comes out I’ll surely break it out here.   In the meantime, we need to consider the situation and be prepared to do what we can to attract the next generation of people to us.

Elsewhere….

--  The AIA show… I’ll have some more thoughts on next post as with when I am writing this I have not gotten a lot of feedback in yet.  It looked busy and loud (Guardian did a great periscope of a presentation but the music from a booth nearby was blaring) I will note it is always interesting to see which glass and glazing companies exhibit there.  Some make sense and quite frankly some do not.  But the dogged desire to get to see a real, live, breathing, architect in the flesh for 12 seconds can be pretty tough to pass up….ha ha.

--  The latest Glass Magazine review…this is the issue that has the guide to specifications that I mentioned last week.  That is outstanding.  Some other pieces to surely read.  Good reminder/best practices article from Marco Terry on “Seven Tricks to Improve Cash Flow.”  I am a fan of Pete de Gorter and he has a very level headed look at steps to take when buying equipment.  I think that is very relevant since it feels like everyone in the industry right now is looking or buying some sort of equipment.  And as always whenever Joe Schiavone of CRL writes, I’m reading it- this issue he broke down the Florida Building Code and Impact products.  So there’s all of that and much more… check it out!

--  Best ad of the month was a tough one… but I am going with Sage Glass as I thought they took an interesting approach with their ad.  Usually the dynamic guys focus on the product and what it does, but this ad was about the installation.  Different focus and it made me stop and read.  Kudos to the gang there!

--  Last this week…. The news that ESPN was letting go more than 100 people was all over social media during the week.  There were many theories on ESPN making major cuts but the biggest one that people rarely mentioned was that network got too fat.  Too many people, too many ventures, the focus was all over the place.  We see it in our industry all the time, when times are good people sometime expand for expansion sake and not with a plan.  We should always be challenging everything we do and if we diversify its with a plan and approach in mind.  I think that’s where ESPN lost its way and quite frankly they may still have more cutting to go…

LINKS of the WEEK

Searching for a hermit.  Seriously.  They exist I guess.

Nice story- hopefully this young man continues to prove the doubters wrong!

Fun one- mascot comes through in the clutch!

VIDEO of the WEEK

One in a million sort of shot here… puck goes through the slight opening in the glass!