Back to the Grindstone

The Glass Association of North America's (GANA) Glass Week and the BEC Conference were a great success from everything I saw and heard, and I think the GANA staff and conference speakers have had the well-deserved accolades piled on. For those of you who didn’t have the opportunity to make it yourselves, we tried our best to bring you a view of the conference highlights with our video footage, which you can find on our USGNN archive site, marked with a small red video camera icon.

The only thing I think hasn’t been covered, was the intense conversation on any given night at the ghostbar, located on the 55th story of the Palms, regarding whether that was in fact glass or a polycarbonate “window” set into the bar’s patio floor. Anyone want to claim this particular project and settle this question once and for all ..?

As I’m sure the 500+ attendees of last week’s conference will agree, great as the conference was, after a week out of the office the inbox was looking pretty scary upon my return. As I told someone this morning, it’s been very encouraging the tremendous response we received to this year’s Book of Lists, but after a week out of the office there was quite a lot of your forms to wade through. It’s a great problem to have, though, and my thanks to everyone who showed such interest in being a part of this annual feature.

With this massive project just about coming to a close, I’m starting to turn my attention to our April issue, with its focus on architects. For those of you who responded to our contract glazing survey last fall, I get the impression that just this mention of the architectural industry already has gotten a reaction from you. No offense meant to architects—we love ’em to death and wouldn’t have work without them—but admit it. Your life would be a lot easier if they knew a thing or two about glass, right?

Well here’s your chance to help. You can either post here or email me, as I'd like to hear the top three things you wish architects knew about glass or the glass industry. We’ll run your kind suggestions (or desperate pleas) in the April issue of USGlass, which also will feature a preview of the AIA Convention in San Francisco.

Video Highlights

I’m sure by now you’ve clicked onto the first of our new monthly online newscasts (and if you haven’t, be sure to check it out here). Thanks to those of you who offered your kind suggestions and comments. As I mentioned in my last post, everyone’s trying to stand out, and this regular video broadcast is just one more service we at USGNN/USGlass are offering to bring news to the industry. Of course, I can’t help but remark that it’s a service I’ve noticed a number of glass industry companies offering of late.

As I’m preparing for our March issue and its annual Big Book of Lists—which includes rankings of the industry’s top glazing contractors and suppliers in a number of categories—I’ve been drawn to a couple of websites to learn more about the companies that have been submitting forms for this issue. On a number of those sites I’ve stumbled upon video offerings that I thought worth sharing:

• Egan Co. provides an overview to its services, including curtainwall installation;
• Arizona Shower Door welcomes visitors to its website with a personable video about the company;
• DORMA Group North America goes a step further by providing video product introductions and installation tips; and
• Applied Materials may be a bit further afield, but the company offers an interesting video on processing glass for solar modules.

Obviously there’s a range of offerings here—from the technical to the overview—but it’s exciting to me to see how many companies are embracing this “different” way of making their company stand out. These are just a couple I’ve stumbled upon in the past couple of weeks—I’d love to hear about the decision that led to your video offerings and the learning curve you’ve faced in making that transition.

And as for the Big Book of Lists—if you haven’t received a form yet and you’re interested in being included, send me an email at mheadley@glass.com and I’ll get that over to you pronto.