MVP Season Begins

It is once again that time of the year that we start to look back and for me that is my annual awarding of the glass industry MVP.  In one month, with my last post for 2018, I will make the announcement of the runners up and the winner of the award.  I have been recognizing people for this honor since 2013 (list of winners below) and its one of the most rewarding things I can do.  All of the people that I name go above and beyond for this industry and represent our interests extremely well.  2018 will once again be an extremely challenging to choose a winner.  Since I have been doing this I have recognized 40 people all of which made major impacts and I am excited to point out 5 more next month.  If you have someone (or a company) that you think deserves consideration please drop me a line.  Our past winners:

2013- Tracy Rogers

2014- CR Laurence

2015- Jon Kimberlain

2016- Chuck Knickerbocker

2017- Joe Erb

2018- TO BE ANNOUNCED in DECEMBER

Elsewhere…

--  Reminders again-

Thirsty Thursday this week- great insight into NGA.  See what the industries largest association is doing for you and GET INVOLVED!  

Also early bird pricing for Annual Conference ends soon.  Sign up for both ASAP.

--  The latest Glass Magazine review… and I am behind… is for the “Robot Revolution” October issue.  Obviously the recent glasstec event was a major showcase for robots and automation so this issue from Glass Magazine was very timely and helpful.  In depth articles on maintenance, robots, and technology advancements were strong as was Marco Terry’s excellent piece on when to grow a business.  Good stuff as always!  My favorite ad of the month actually goes to GlassBuild America for their piece recognizing all of the sponsors at the show.  All of these companies not only advanced their brand by sponsoring but they also did right by the industry by supporting the effort. It was great to see them all listed on one page.

--  I have covered on here the race to be the city that gets Amazon’s HQ2.  Well it looks like that contest is over and apparently the winners were Long Island, NY and Arlington, Virginia. This was stunning given cost of living, traffic etc. in those areas.  Those choices have not gone over well publicly as some of the tenets that everyone expected from Amazon when it started the search were not considered in the end. 

Will Oremus, Tech Columnist at Slate summed it up well with this tweet:

“I know I'm late to this, but the reason Amazon's HQ2 was a farce is not just that they picked two cities. It's that they raised the hopes of cities across the country that could really use an infusion of economic vitality, then picked the two that need it least of all.”

That really nails it- why have 300 communities do this when this is where you end up?  In any case Amazon also now has detailed planning information on every city in the US, deep intel really, that I am sure they will utilize to keep growing.  From a business side it was brilliant.  From a human side, it left me cold. 

--  Check out the design of this building.  I sure hope when it comes to the engineering someone really smart like John Wheaton is involved because looking at this blows my mind.

--  Last this week… note there is no blog from me next week as we head into the Thanksgiving holiday.  As I have noted here many times, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I can’t wait to enjoy it yet again.  But even more so this year- we need to give thanks for what we have and take heed that it does not last forever.  Life can be short, time absolutely flies, so next week, when you gather with your friends and family, take it all in a little deeper.  Thank you.

LINKS of the WEEK

--  I found this cute and funny and surely makes the engagement even more memorable.

--  Serious question on this one… How?

--  This story was everywhere this week, but in case you missed it… the town that rallied around the owner of a donut shop. 

VIDEO of the WEEK

We are here at the Veterans Day time and if you want to show your support and appreciation to the amazing veterans in the United States, please consider donating to these folks.  They do great work to serve the heroes who served all of us!