Review, Awards, Indexes and More
Gearing up for GlassBuild
Kicking it off this week a review of the latest Glass Magazine. Really strong edition led by the ultra-prestigious Glass Magazine Awards. Congrats to all the winners there and note at GlassBuild they’ll honored in person. Very cool!
Elsewhere in this issue there were good articles on innovation by Jim Nixon of Quanex and a cool deep dive into printing on glass by Adam Mitchell of AGNORA. Plus the technical resource on mirrors is a must if you are in that business. Good stuff all around and kudos to all involved!
As always, I do my “ad of the month” and because this issue featured the awards and is heavily read, it attracted a lot of advertisers and that makes my job of picking a winner that much harder. But I do what I have to do! So this month the winner is Lattuada North America. I am partial to the use of the color green so that helped… but seriously I loved the mix of creative and standard with the pictures of the machinery and the overall color scheme popped. Good text to image ratio too… so congrats to the team there for a job well done!
Elsewhere….
Getting ready for GBA 2023
I am really getting excited for GlassBuild and I think I’m not alone. I am seeing more action online about it (and not just from the NGA team but exhibitors are really stepping up) and hearing about more meetings and gatherings on-site. Plus my legendary brother is planning on attending, so that alone makes me think we’re getting a heck of a crowd. Can’t wait. If you haven’t registered yet, do so now. Also do the hotel immediately as well as I am told they are filling fast. All can be done at GlassBuild.com
Latest DMI
Not a great recent Dodge Momentum Index. That softer market that I have mentioned here a few times is starting to spread and now showing up in reports like this one. The bright side is the areas that pulled the index lower, schools and healthcare, are not expected to be downer segments going forward so this could be more on the fluke side than we think. Still, we know that we were in for some challenges and they are here. Next up, the Architectural Billings Index this Wednesday. Last month dead flat… I’ll be absolutely stunned if it’s a plus score. We’ll see and report back on my next post.
New iPhone
The next version of the Apple iPhone was announced and the biggest thing to me is the change from a “Lightning” connector to a USB-C. I’m pretty bummed on the change as I have tons of the current connectors and have backups everywhere etc. Plus I am old fashioned (and old) so I like wired headphones for hands free talking and now that becomes a change too. But I know everything evolves and now the whole world will be on the same charging platform so in the long run this probably will be good. Just sucks for now... at least in my opinion/life.
Personnel news
Nice to see another past podcast guest get some positive pub! This being the very talented and cool Asta Fivgas of Reflection Window and Wall. She’s now Director of Preconstruction there and I am sure that rocket ship will continue to fly. Congrats Asta and Reflection on the move and if you missed my talk with Asta, you can catch it either HERE on video or via Apple, Spotify etc by searching “From the Fabricator” and look for the May 2023 edition.
Rappelling for charity
One of the overall “best” people in our industry is Kyle Sword of NSG Pilkington. Just a class act all the way around, all the time. And with that in mind it should not surprise you that he just completed a very unique experience for charity. Kyle was a part of a team that rappelled down the 16 story Libbey Building in Toledo. It was done as an event that raised money for the Victory Center, non profit Cancer Wellness Center. Kyle and company raised more than 4k from individual donors and a stunner 200K overall. Absolutely awesome. Now rumors are that Kyle did it all without safety clips, going one handed on just a single rope popping quickly down the building like Spiderman. Incredible! Way to go Kyle and everyone else that was involved in this super event!
No post next week
Last this week… no post for me next week, need to recharge the blog brain as we get to the crucial GlassBuild stretch! But when I return to this space week of October 1st, it’ll be with a brand new podcast with some serious industry heavyweights. If any breaking news happens (you never know, there’s several big companies for sale right now, a deal could close) I’ll pop on to cover that on LinkedIn. Until then, stay well everyone!
