Look Back/Look Forward Pod & Blog

Once again, a natural disaster is wreaking havoc, and my thoughts and prayers are with those affected by Hurricane Milton.  This has been a brutally awful few weeks, weather-wise.  I'm hoping for the best for all and indeed praying for this to be the last storm for a while.  Hang in there, everyone.

It's tough to switch gears, but for some, this distraction of reading the blog or catching a podcast hits it.  So here we go.  Fresh off the show, I wanted a podcast that hit on the next show (glasstec) and a highlight from GlassBuild.  First up… Jason Isackson from Sentinel Facades joined me.  Jason and Sentinel burst onto the scene at GlassBuild and made an impact with custom hockey jerseys and a coffee bar.  Their product line also caught some attention because of the system approach, and Jason broke that whole thing down.  Fun to get to know him a bit.  Then, I go to a pair that I have known for a long time and have immense respect for.  Michael and Carolyn Spellman of IGE Glass Technologies joined me, and we covered a ton of items- from equipment to VIG and all in between.  Lots to catch up on, and the best part of this pair is that they work so splendidly together and are 100% genuine.  Both have massive strengths, and what they have brought and continue to bring to the industry is absolutely crucial.  Thank you for checking it all out. 

VIDEO

AUDIO (Search “From the Fabricator” on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts)

And as I teased at the end of the podcast, I have lined up the next 3 months, and it’s a really diverse range of people in our space, with a few I barely know but am pumped to interview.  Thank you for your support!

FHC again sponsored this episode- sincere thanks to them for being a part of it all!

Elsewhere…

-- As I noted last week, I was saving a few items from Dallas for this post. Leading off was my time at the FHC booth and the chance to visit with Mr. Friese.  To be able to sit down with him and chat for a bit was an incredible honor and something I will always appreciate.  His impact on our industry- past, present, and future is off the charts.  I am grateful I got a few minutes.  In addition, spending some time with the brain trust there- from Chris Hanstad, to DJ Friese, to Barry Sutherland, to Paul Daniels and so on- it was awesome.  And of course, somehow shoehorning me in for a few minutes, getting valuable moments with Andrew Haring is always something I will cherish.  Lots of good stuff happening there and I was glad to get up to speed overall.

-- I mentioned briefly about Connor Lokar’s talk during the show, and in the last week, there’s been more time to think through it and also continue to take in the latest forecasting.  So, boiling it down some.  We’ve got the slow/soft points continuing for a bit, with some breakthroughs coming sometime in 2025 for those areas affected.  26 and 27 have some upward potential, which many folks were excited to hear.  However, my big takeaway is “strategy” and how crucial that is. Connor talked about making purchases in the near term (next 2-4 quarters) and we saw a lot of action behind that on the show floor.  But where strategy comes in is- what are you buying and how is it helping you?  Are you buying to diversify your products, producing them more efficiently, and keeping your labor healthy?  Then you’re doing it right.  You have to consider all of those factors along the way…. And many were doing that on the floor.

-- Big kudos to the gang at Isoclima/Global Security on the successful launch of their new Armorgard Ultimate product.  This group has led the way with various protective products and it’s happening again.  Lance Cotton doesn’t make it on those “most influential” lists for nothing, right?  Congrats to them for the innovations and their support of our space!

-- Another webinar for you to consider checking out.  The one and only Jeff Dalaba will be featured on an upcoming National Architectural Glass and Metal Association (NAGMA) event to talk about certification.  You know I am HUGE into this and its importance.  If you are an installer and have looked into NACC, this is a great webinar to learn more and why you should think on it.  The free webinar is on October 17th at 2PM.  It will be worth your time!

Here's the link:

https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/4087889011063642456?source=Landing+Page

-- Last this week… as mentioned above in the podcast section, glasstec is coming up quick.  Way too quick, actually.  As in, I leave next weekend for Germany. I’ll talk more next week on that show and my expectations but if you are going to glasstec please hit me up.  I’d love to see familiar faces there and if it is your first time attending, feel free to reach out and I can give some highlights to expect too. 

LINKS of the WEEK

My gosh- bad enough the flood and damage from Helene but it brings out Yellowjackets?  And good luck getting EpiPens… (unless you can get to Canada where they are easy to get vs the idiotic approach in US)

https://www.yahoo.com/news/yellow-jackets-swarm-north-carolina-232956835.html

No words for this story.  I just keep staring at it.  Racoons. Swarming. Etc.  And the woman who kept feeding them.

https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/10/08/more-than-100-raccoons-swarm-womans-home-demanding-food/

Adaptive reuse in a way?  Interesting!

https://www.fastcompany.com/91204082/brooklyn-apartment-building-warehouse-work-from-home

PROJECT of the WEEK

So when Seth Madole of Viracon posted this picture/project a few weeks ago it pretty much went viral.  But just in case you didn’t see it, I had to put it in rotation for my project of the week!  Here’s the skinny from Seth:

This building is at SpaceX Starbase at Boca Chica Village at southern tip of Texas about 300 miles away from Austin. They build this rocket near the launch site because it’s too big to transport. It’s the largest and most powerful rocket ever built! Glazing Contractor is Arrowall and product is our VRE-46.

1. The glass is tempered and heat soaked. 2. The outboard lite is 5/16". 3. The glass represents the following flatness requirements: .003" max rollerwave distortion .008" max edge dip/leading-trailing edge .25" max overall bow distortion Max +/- 100mD (millidiopter) over 95% of glass surface

Units are approximately 60 x 140.

Pretty freaking awesome- love when the beauty of glass and glazing stand out like this!! Kudos to Seth and Viracon and everyone involved!

GlassBuild Dallas Recap

That surely was a heck of a show.  GlassBuild 2024 is now in the books and and it truly went by in a flash.  I hope everyone who exhibited and attended had a great time and gained knowledge and work from it all. I absolutely loved the opportunity to learn and network and I picked up a ton along the way.  So, time to run through the annual post recapping and dropping names all over.  It’s a long one so settle on in!  (Please skip to bottom for a special message on being able to help one of our own- Thank you)

-- Overall, the vibe was positive. Even though many companies right now are slower than normal and backlogs lighter, the attitudes were flying along the line of “we’re going to make the best of it and do what we can to keep moving forward.” So the search on the floor was for more efficiency and diversity (both in products and labor) and I think many succeeded in there efforts. Even with some continued headwind warnings from Connor Lokar, the upbeat feels continued.  I’ll take it.  We know we have some battles ahead, but I love that people are working to do something about it vs putting their heads in the sand.  I’ll hit more on Connor’s talk, content from the show, a visit with a legend and his company, and more next week! Until then let’s get into more of the people side!

-- At events like this I am always talking, usually excitedly, so it’s a challenge to make me speechless.  The tremendously talented Leah Siemann of Standard Bent Glass / SBG accomplished that feat.  She does amazing decorative work for SBG but also as a hobby is a world class artist and game aficionado.  She blew me away by creating a custom glass industry game, featuring me as a player in it.  So now I’ve got to learn how to play this game and use this card. (see below) It’s unreal. Note: Alex Buechel of Learn Glazing also got a card and I have a feeling he’ll be the one educating us (since educating is what he does) on the workings of the game.   Anyway, I am honored and humbled!  And Leah, you my friend are awesome.

-- A ton of great booths and looks and a massive winner there was Jason Isakson and the team at new entry, Sentinel Facades.  They came in the custom hockey jerseys and that along with a cool set of products had their booth packed.  Happy for Jason who’s a good guy in our space and this venture looks good.  Also, IGE Glass Technologies debuted a new booth designed by the very talented Carolyn Spellman and it was fabulous.  Of course Michael Spellman was on top of his game, so many things to see in there and also breaking out the VIG Technologies VIG sample with VacuGask was extremely impressive.  Best looking VIG I have seen and the gasket continues to be genius play.  It was nice to see Heinz Wiedmayer on site- he battled a serious health issue but beat it and looked great. And on the note of looking great? The “knockout” JRS machine was off the charts.  Incredible!

-- Loved seeing Barbara Townsend of Binswanger!  I worked with her years ago and have not seen her in probably 10 years.  She’s taken on a new spot at Binswanger and will crush it.  I also hadn’t seen Travis Greenwald from those old Binswanger days too, and that also was wonderful to visit with him as well.  Dan Wright of Paragon Tempered Glass is another from my past life that I rarely see, so getting a few minutes with him is very special.  And to wrap this section my past past past life also had connections seeing the incredible Bob Cummings (now at Hartung) Jeff Ziesche (FHC and JAZ Sales) and Jon Johnson (Mayor of Glasstown, AROW) is huge for me, those three impacted my life and all my family, so every visit is meaningful and appreciated.

-- I love meeting new folks and there were a bunch this year.  Among them included Dheeraj Corepall of Technoform. He was in a celebratory mode with Technoform hitting the 20 year mark this year.  Marion Pynn of Walker Glass is someone I have met in passing but this year was my first extended time with her and she’s quickly become one of the best marketing/PR people in our space.  Extremely impressive person.  I met Tim Nass of SAFTI! And I had no question for him.  Stupid me, I could’ve had my “Ask Tim” moment and I froze.  Jose Rodriguez of OBE had pinged me on LinkedIn and we connected at the very last moment and that was excellent! I was blown away that Ashraf Hussein of GED grabbed me and mentioned he enjoys the podcast.  That so nice to hear and much appreciated!!

-- Old friends were rocking on the floor, Kevin Roth and Privacy Glass Solutions launched a new product (Lyto) that will do quite well. Happy for him!  I ended up in a conversation with the tremendous trio of Cameron Scripture, Ryan Hoffman (Viracon) and Joe Kaiser (Herzog) - serious brain power and skills among the three and I was thrilled they gave me 5 minutes.  Class acts all!  I was bummed that Luc Boileau (Herzog) and I could not catch up more, we started to chat and then both got pulled away.  I really need to get to the pacific Northwest to see those guys.  And then of course get to Vancouver and see Ralph and Josh Aknin of Glass 3 Enterprises. Loved catching up with them in Dallas.  I was bummed that I missed their BC neighbors Carey Mobius and Russ Rozanskas of Garibaldi. I saw them both from afar but failed to visit.  I didn’t get much time with the incredible Joe Erb of Quanex until we shared a flight home! That was nice.

-- And while we’re on the who I missed.  I never saw Tom Donovan or Jeremy Deutschmann of Thompson Innovative Glass.  Love chatting with Tom always and this was Jeremy’s first Glassbuild so I was curious what he thought.  Hope it was good.  Also was disappointed I never saw Fulgencio Rey of OBE. Such a good guy he probably had a ton of people surrounding him at all times.  Barely saw Charlie Boyer, which bummed me out because I get smarter every time I speak with him and right now I could use that extra brainpower. And last, I never saw Ryan Shoemaker of Champagne Glass & Door.  Brutal bad beat for me there.

-- Texas obviously represented.  I always love seeing Sam and Chris Hill.  Such wonderful people who are always treating me better than I deserve.  Kyle Sharp and Steve Sherman of SHARP (I like the new brand angle) were fun to chat with and Kyle crushed it as MC of the Glazing Executives Forum.  MASSIVE kudos to Brian Risinger and Joe Lambertson of Country Glass.  They brought their entire staff to the show! And of course, being the kings of great SWAG had them in custom T Shirts.  Beautiful!  Also bringing a ton was Ron Parker and Hunter Peyton of Ballistic Glass and Armor Solutions.  They had 14 people in tow and that’s a group that’s been on fire with new product development.  Also, on that level of product line and Texas, USBP was well represented and I was honored to get a few minutes with Hector Vallejo, Brian Hanson and of course Wade Arnold. Greg Grothoff continues to rock it with Glassfab in the Southwest, and I even got a few minutes with the ultra-talented Sunny Mhay and Aaron Goldfarb from there.  I saw the Tristar team and always blown away that someone as smart as Rob Carlson follows my podcast and blog.  Thrilled!  Last Mike DeFrank, one of the coolest cats in the state, just started at Future Glass and it was spectacular to hang with him for a few. He’ll do great there.

-- PR stars in attendance… the Gold Standard Heather West was EVERYWHERE on that floor as was Rich Porayko.  So much talent/skill there.  Overall talent was in full display and I was lucky to run into a bunch of it.  The most popular guy in our industry Tom O’Malley of Clover never fails, Ian Patlin of Phoenix Architectural Glass + Metal was on a mission throughout and Mike Kovacs at View-Tech was in full glass nerd mode as I saw him everywhere truly seeing it all (as was the theme of the show!) Angus MacMillan was connecting his Highlander Architectural dots all over- disappointed I didn’t get more than a second with him.  It was very nice to visit with Sandra Kugler of Viprotron, her new booth looked fantastic.  Brian Thomas of Super Sky commands an audience every time, I got a few minutes and hopefully I still make the cut to visit with him at BEC in the spring.   It was fun to catch up with my 2nd favorite Hawaiians in Ron and Kahala Knopp.  (my fave will always be Lyle Shimazu) We laughed on when I first met them in 2018 I asked them if they knew Lyle.  Only because I knew Lyle was from Hawaii and they were Hawaii.  You know like Hawaii being this tiny place…. LOL.  Sure I’ll admit it, I thought everyone in Hawaii knew each other! Also, nice while talking with Kahala and Ron, I met Danielle and Jacob King of Coordinated Glass.  They had never heard of BEC, so I got to tell them why I need to see them in March in Vegas!

-- A few more, loved seeing the ultra-cool Casey Weir of Rountree Glass.  Travis Nevins and Matt Fox (IUPAT) were so busy, I barely got a moment, glad they’re doing well.  Great guys.   I enjoyed meeting Jan Krutsky of CADPLAN, his enthusiasm is off the charts… almost Syndi Sim like… and yes seeing Syndi (Q-Railing) is always a plus for me.  Plus Casey Anderson of ICD always brings a smile to my face.  Junaid Saleem and I finally got together… for like 25 seconds.  But hey I’ll take it.  Happy Junaid supports our world the way he does! I’ve always been an admirer of Tammy Schroeder of Apogee Architectural Framing Systems, she’s one of best in our space and I enjoyed catching up with her on the floor.  Next step, get her on my podcast! Dave Anderson and Trent Thiry are two amazing guys who are starting new ventures and will be MASSIVE successes.  I am glad I could say I knew them before they went big time. 

-- I must mention that the team from the National Glass Association- were off the charts extraordinary this week.  Content was strong, the show flowed, people networked, and knowledge was gained by all.  It is not easy to deal with thousands of people in a 250,000 sq ft space and make sure all the trains are running on time.  But it came off flawlessly.  That comes from serious work by so many from the NGA, and it’s still crazy to me that I get to be a part of that team!! Thank you all for what you do!

I know I missed more than a few people here and at the show and I am sorry.  Know that I love catching up with everyone and look forward to the next time we all can gather (BEC in March).  Thank you to everyone who continue to treat me so well.  I am truly honored. 

Last this week- my thoughts and prayers continue to be with Billy Britt and his entire family and company in Asheville.  Unfortunately, the storm there did serious damage and I am heartbroken for Billy who is one of the best and most genuine guys in our world.  Bill Daubmann, with Billy’s approval has started a GoFundMe (HERE) and also is accepting donations via Venmo at @donna-daubmann or you can send a check to Bill Daubmann (Hit me up for the address). The money will go to Billy for him and his family/team/business etc. I'll keep you updated too on that process.

Our industry features the best in the world, and we all need to do what we can to help out.  Thank you.

No links or project of the week – see you next week with the normal rundown!!