Pod, People, and More!
BEC only one week away
The latest From the Fabricator podcast is now online and live. The mix of guests this month is very exciting. I kick it off with the one and only Garret Henson of Viracon and we covered a ton of ground, both in historical and also products and important issues going forward.
Next up I had the wonderful Nicole Mann of Glass Vegas. Great story from her and her passion going forward is something to behold. I can’t wait to meet her in person next week at BEC. Then I wrap it up with three great guys who have invented a product that will be crucial for so many in the future. Michael Spellman, Art Huard, and Dr. Charlie Boyer join me to talk about the Vacu-Gask product that will be a must for the oncoming rush of VIG installations. Really neat insights shared by all, so please check it out and if you are on your way to BEC, perfect time to listen since all of these folks will be in attendance!
You can watch the podcast on Youtube, or listen here, Apple, Spotify, Google, etc.
BEC one week away
So as noted above, BEC is coming and we are now just one week out. Sunday March 5th the best of the best of the glazing sector will gather in Vegas and take part in this incredibly meaningful event. The last few weeks I have been noting some of the sessions and another one I cannot wait to take in is the kick off keynote on Monday. It will be Susan Stone of Ubiquitous Energy, Trent Thiry of Isoclima/Global Security Glazing and Sophie Pennetier of Enclos. They’ll be talking about what’s on the horizon in our industry and how we can all get up to speed and grow. I am so excited as these are three wonderful and engaging people, so that alone makes it a must-see, but add in the subject matter and I expect a lot of buzz after it. Can’t wait. Looking forward to seeing everyone soon.
ABI released this week
Interesting release of the Architectural Billings Index this week. The index was below the break even number but it was better than we expected and actually not bad at 49.3. Plus, as I mentioned last week, the one item to watch was new project inquiries and that number went up nicely to over 55, giving us the best report there since August. So far everything is tracking as predicted. While things continue to soften, the feeling is that this stretch will be on the shorter side. Regardless of any index, we all just keep plugging away and that is all that matters. I’ll be curious to see how folks at BEC feel on all of this and will obviously report back here.
Promotions and expansions
Some good industry news to run down. Jan Hulin of Q-Railing has now been promoted to President of the company. Nice to see. Jan is a good man who’s really helped mold Q into a massive player in that rail space.
Meanwhile awesome news out of IGE Glass Technologies with an excellent addition in Heinz Wiedmayer. Lots of experience and knowledge being added to a group loaded with it already. And kudos to the folks at Aldora on the announcement of their latest operation in Virginia. This is relevant because of what I noted last week on the Weathertech commercial and manufacturing in North America. See folks, new plants are opening, not everything is made off shore.
Industry shoutout
Last, big couple of weeks for friend of the blog and industry groundbreaker Bill Daubmann of MyShowerDoor and D3 Glass. The team from the Fox morning show did their remote reporting newscast all morning there and was a great way to show our world works. They also did a report with Bill that took a great look at all Bill and family have accomplished. Very cool! Then Bill picked up some awards (I can’t keep track but I do believe they were only glass company awarded) and became tight with not one but two major league baseball teams. Not sure when Bill or any of the team there has time to breathe but they are absolutely rocking.
