Wrapping up 2018 GlassBuild America… overall the show was
very strong and it matches the overall attitude I heard from many on the
floor. People are very busy and doing
well. So I am very encouraged about how
things are headed in our world. I
thought the floor was incredible with regards to the exhibits. Simply blown away at designs and layouts and
how many companies went the extra mile to stand out. The education and demos did not disappoint
and I think the networking potential was easily realized- so many people were
meeting all over Vegas; it was surely a productive week for most.
So now on to my personal awards and my annual recap of seen
and not seen on the floor. The show does
its Best in Show and the winners were great but I wanted to give kudos to a few
others. I loved the carpet in Vitro’s
booth. It was laid out like a piece of
glass and then a piece of oversize behind to show the new size capability. Pure brilliance from Rob Struble and Glen
Miner as always. HHH’s booth caught the
eye of many with very effective marketing pieces- it was super- the duo of Mike
Synon and Melissa Blank really came through with a win, and I continually love
Quanex’s classic booth that is always front and center and a great show piece-
just wish I could’ve actually visited the team there, ran out time. In the end there were tons of others that
deserve congrats too- but this blog will be extra long as it is, so I’ll stop
there. By the way in an upset, best
shirts went to Tubelite. Love the
colors! Unique and cool taste
choice. The former champ Salem had great
ones again- as always-, but Mary Olivier and company win it in 2018. And best dressed
non company division, Chris Fronsoe of ICD- including the most stylish shoe
choices this industry will ever see.
As for the folks on the floor, I was so busy this year with
Express Learning, GEF and the Knowledge Bar I did not get around like in the past
and missed some folks I hoped to see. I
was though happy to visit and meet in person Heather Monroe of Machines and
Wheels. She’s got great products and she
brought Cheerwine soda for me to try (I wrote about it a few months ago) – it
was awesome and I am thankful! Also
thankful the hospitality of Bill O’Keeffe and Diana San Diego of SAFTI FIRST-
so bummed that my schedule got in the way of spending time with them. Same with Joe Dressler of Tremco- wish I
could’ve broken away but just couldn’t pull it off.
A Happy Anniversary to Heather West! Heather’s incredible company (best PR in the
industry) celebrated its 20th year in business during the show! Congrats Heather and here’s to many many more
years on top! Speaking of major leaders
in their field, getting to moderate a panel with Garret Henson was great, and
seeing the guy with Hollywood great looks Cameron Scripture of Viracon is
always a fantastic moment for me. On
that panel by the way, it was remarkable to be on stage with Allen Mathis of
YKK and Jeff Rende of Guardian Glass as well.
Those guys (including Garret) were OUTSTANDING! (3 really smart, classy
guys carrying me for an hour- thank you!)
Because I was busy I missed spending any time with Bill Sullivan, Sam
Benowitz, Dan Wright, and Joe Staffileno all of whom I saw on the floor but
could not get anything more than a “hello” out. Pretty much same for my pals
Ian “Nic Cage” Patlin and Max Hals of Paragon- I’ll see them more at
glasstec. I did however run into a ton
of my past life favorites like Jack Wickstrom, Jon Johnson, Cliff Monroe, Bret
Summers, Cliff Helterbran, Erik Stumpf, Mike Hossley, the awesome Wardi
Bisharat, Jackie Audette, and in a stunner Ashley Charest. So cool to see her once again!
Work was getting done on the floor- every time I saw Ralph
Aknin and his talented crew from Glass 3 Enterprises they had a crowd around
them hanging on every word from Ralph’s mouth.
Same also for Tom Donovan of Suntuitive Dynamic Glass/Pleotint, he was
flying high after his product was featured on Treehouse Masters last week. (More on this on my post next week- huge) Tom
O’Malley of Clover Architectural is always here and I always appreciate whether
I get to talk to him for 1 minute or 1 hour.
Great guy. I only got a few
minutes with marketing and business development virtuoso Andrew Haring. Such an terrific person, I am a huge fan and
it was nice to just catch up without any specific marketing need or video to
shoot attached.
I was blown away that this was Chuck Knickerbocker’s first
GlassBuild! Great to see him and catch
up and speaking of first time GlassBuild attendees Tessa Miller, the superb
marketing lead from Trex Commercial Products (formerly known as SC Railing) was
also making her first appearance at the show.
I loved hearing her thoughts on the show floor!
I enjoyed chatting with Dustin Anderson of Anderson
Glass. He was a rockstar here this week
again, every presentation he did just had the crowd completely engaged and
enthused. While we are on the subject of
fired up, the team at IGE Glass Technologies fit that bill, packed pavilion to
the point where I had to come an hour before the show started on day 3 to even
get a chance to chat with them.
I LOVE meeting new people.
This time I was honored to meet several.
Leading the way was Kahala Knoop of Pacific Mirror and Glass. She was a huge help to me while I was
moderating the GEF session mentioned above and then we had a great talk on
social media- really sharp! Kristin
Thomas of Tab Glass stopped by my spot at the Knowledge Bar to say hi and I am
so glad she did- really impressed by everything she’s accomplished and Tab is
an awesome company. I ended up talking
her ear off and I hope she made her flight in time!
Last to mention, my utmost respect to the entire team at
NGA- this is a monumental event to pull off and this year there were more
moving parts and pieces than ever before.
The team there is awesome and I am grateful to get to work with
them. They all deserve kudos for an
incredible effort!
Obviously I probably missed some big ones, so I may mention
a few more next week. In any case it’s
on to the next ones, starting with glasstec in Germany at the end of October and
the Annual Conference and the BEC at the start of 2019. I look forward to it all!
LINKS of the WEEK
On this one.. one word… HOW?
Amazing commute to work- I don’t get it- but you do what you
have to I guess.
VIDEO of the WEEK
Some of you may have noticed I was not wearing my yellow
vest this year- that’s because GlassBuild brought in an awesome video guy to do
the work while I was speaking/moderating etc.
Unbelievable work was done.. here is video from the 2nd day
on the show floor featuring Elvis…
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