The MVP Race Begins

And here we go… it is officially now Glass Industry MVP season… so next month I’ll release our winner and runners up but here is where I give the background on this process and also salute those recognized in the past. 

For those new to this blog…. Each year as the calendar wraps up I announce the winner and runners up of my industry MVP award.  This recognition is something I created back in 2013 to show my appreciation for those folks and companies who are always pushing for the best in our industry.  What I am looking at is people and companies that are active in the industry at the trade and technical levels.  Folks that are always promoting glass and glazing and are constantly hustling to push the greatness of what we do to the forefront.

As a look back, here are the wonderful people who have been recognized previously in this program and pretty much all of them are still very active in advancing the glass world. 

Past Industry MVP’s

2013- Tracy Rogers

2014- CR Laurence

2015- Jon Kimberlain

2016- Chuck Knickerbocker

2017- Joe Erb

2018- Nathalie Thibault

Previous Runners Up:

2013

Dr. Tom Culp

Mark Silverberg

Ed Zaucha

Mic Patterson

Oliver Stepe

Dr. Helen Sanders

Scott Thomsen

2014

John Wheaton

Rick Wright

Tom O’Malley

Bernard Lax

2015

Walker Glass  

Garret Henson

Dip Tech

Kris Vockler

2016

Mike Albert

Thom Zaremba 

Urmilla Jokhu-Sowell

SAPA

2017

GCI Consultants

Darijo Babic

Cathie Saroka

2018

Felix Munson

Jeff Haber

Glenn Miner/Rob Struble  

Greg Oehlers

So now over the next month I’ll be looking at our world to see who’s next and if you have any recommendations or nominees please do not hesitate to reach out to me.

Elsewhere…

--  We are now fully into construction industry economic forecast season.  So between now and the end of the year more and more data will be released on what the analysts are seeing in their crystal balls.  Glass Magazine had a recap of the Dodge release that you can read HERE if you missed it.  In the meantime I was on the annual ConstructConnect webcast and they’re looking at a slight decrease on the non-residential side in 2020 with a bounce back in 2021.  That is similar to what we heard at GlassBuild and from other experts out there.  Still more details to come but it continues to look like we need to be smart and proactive with regards to where our business landscape is concerned.

--  One way to be smart?  Get involved with events to advance yourself and company.  On the fabrication side, I am dumbfounded by the amount of companies who are tempering and insulating glass but yet do NOT attend the NGA Annual Conference.  How can you battle in a challenging world without the knowledge that is presented at events like that one?  It’s amazing.  Anyway if you have an interest, check out this link and if you want more insight contact me.

--  I’ve mentioned John Wheaton’s blog before but I guess if I am on the path of pushing people to be “smart” a good start is checking out John’s posts.  He’s got a gift… quick and interesting posts that are extremely helpful.  Funny looking above at 2014 where John was a runner up in my MVP that year and knowing he could easily win the award yearly given his dedication to the causes.  In any case if you haven’t checked his work out, please do.

--  Next week I’ll have a take on our industry getting some good notice in what was otherwise a rough  (but true in a lot of cases) opinion piece. 

LINKS of the WEEK

Wonderful story and classic Canadian too!

Neat stuff but seems like a huge waste in a way?

I swear this sounds like something out of a movie.

VIDEO of the WEEK

Ok.. my kids are in college so this has no effect right now on me but did the “ABC” song really change?  I heard some rumblings and now see this video… come on… really?  Check it out… it’s a shock to the system!