Escaped the miserable Michigan winter and spent a few days in Florida at Glass Expo Southeast. This show is held every other year and I was excited to catch up with folks from the region and those I may have missed at major events like GlassBuild. Overall vibe was Florida is rocking now, there’s a positivity that will continue and it’s not as worrisome as it is in other regions. So the weather wasn’t the only thing that was sunny! As always at shows, I was thrilled to meet and visit so many folks who have followed this blog and my podcast in person. One was the very cool Kyle Frankman of Countryside Glass. Absolute powerhouse of a company and I look forward to getting one of Kyle’s jobs in my project of the week segment. He’s a sharp dude. In addition, was nice to visit the NGA’s recent “Member Spotlight” company of Bella Architectural. Brian Mudd is a machine! They do such incredible work, was great to spend some time there. Ran into Matt Sampsell of Press Glass for the first time in forever. He’s rocking over there. Love it. Also rocking and doing quite well is Andy Amitrano of Architectural Glass Services. Super to see. The Shower Door Pros were well represented. Eliben Morelos of Vitralum grabbed me and we got to chat for a few seconds- next time down here I gotta visit his place. Of course loved seeing Keith Daubmann. Wish I had a smidgen of his energy. James Wright of Virginia is a great friend and he is always on fire, and good to see outgoing CEO John Korff there helping transition new CEO Larry Lamb. I only get to see Dave Nelson of CRL at shows like this and I enjoy every interaction there. And speaking of enjoying- if you can’t enjoy chatting with the positive and focused Ahlam Alqudah Qaimari of Griffin Glass then you are in the wrong place. It was great to catch up with her and look forward to seeing her at BEC and GPAD. Jay Campbell of Billco gave me more tips for travel to glasstec in Germany. If I go this year, Jay has me ready! Was nice to see Jan Hulin of Q-Railing. Missed him at GlassBuild, so wonderful to catch up here. Got a few seconds with Dapper Dan Reinhart of Salem and that immediately boosted my GQ rating just by association. Lucid Glass made a great splash and was tremendous to meet Besty Dolan in person (huge fan of her e-mail blasts) and see Clint Hopkins again. The Global/Isoclima contingent was always busy but thankfully Trent Thiry, Krisy Kilpatrick, and Art Droste spared a few minutes for me. Last but surely not least- just an honor to work with Andrew Haring and Melanie Dettmer of the NGA. I drive them batty but they are just awesome folks and I am blessed to be in their orbit.
Elsewhere…
-- Next up on the show scene is NGA Glass Conference: Isle of Palm/Charleston. That kicks off February 5thand will be an excellent event and one that will make news with regards to movements on the technical side of our world. THEN! In March it is the powerhouse double-header of BEC and GPAD. BEC is for the glazier, GPAD for the fabricator and both events feature very strong agendas and support. I think more of you know BEC because it is yearly and has been around for so long. GPAD is every other year and its focus on the fabricator and improving and innovating is a big and important play. If you fabricate and you’re not sending someone to this you’re missing out- and doing it wrong. Take a look at the agendas (BEC, GPAD) and any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me!
-- One angle you keep hearing out there is adaptive re-use and retrofitting commercial buildings into residential settings. In theory these are incredible and needed approaches, in reality though not so easy. There is excitement on this process though. This article gives a pretty rosy accounting of it all. Worth the read. Also, on the latest edition of the superb Glass Talk podcast series from Patrick Flannery of Glass Canada, he and Rich Porayko touch on this item and several others in a very interesting back and forth on the year ahead. Catch that HERE.
-- News being made by my good pal Tom O’Malley of Clover Architectural Products recently. Tom and team became one of the outlets for the prestigious PurOptima interior glass systems line. This will be a great addition to the Clover offering and despite some worry about the state of the office I do think products that perform like PurOptima matched with great folks like Clover is a winner. Good to see!
-- Whoa to the national news goes Josh Burg and Glass Enterprises! This past week NBC Nightly News (Lester Holt big- not some local play) rolled into Josh’s plant in PA and focused a story on the economy headlining with him and GEI. Absolutely super cool to see. Here it is if you haven’t seen. Josh is a good guy and I am proud to say was a very early guest on my podcast (my 3rd ever episode in March of 2021) but I am sure he has an agent now and a book/movie deal. (Bradley Cooper in talks to play Josh I hear) So I’ll never get to chat with him one on one again. LOL. Congrats to Josh and the team there and making our world look great! And a huge thank you to the awesome Warren Hagey of Clover Architectural Products who first alerted me to this news segment!
-- Last this week- if all goes well, next week, my next edition of the From the Fabricator podcast will drop and I’ll have two people who return by popular demand. So get ready for a great “recurring” guests edition and the planned talk on forecasts and the future will be MUST listens! Can’t wait! (And not naming because even me teasing this podcast scares me that I jinxed it!)
LINKS of the WEEK
Hybrids really should’ve been the next step vs all electric. And we’re seeing more and more why
Oooh a documentary on the 80’s group “Devo”- may have to watch that. Whip It.
This could be a huge breakthrough- an end to breast cancer?
PROJECT of the WEEK
To New Jersey for this one and from the feed of Linda Jurman, owner of MatLin Glass & Door service. This is the Moorestown Cooper Hospital and job looks fantastic! No word on who supplied the glass and metal but KUDOS to all involved!!
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