Connected to the Glass Industry

I know this blog is late in coming, but I wanted to just say for the record that Glass Performance Days was a blast. I was really surprised about how many of us first-timers were there – and here I thought that I was the only person in the industry not to have made it to Tampere, Finland, for this notable biannual conference. Some people were drawn by this year’s expanded focus on solar glazing, some because they’re starting to do more business overseas and were interested in networking with the heavy-hitters that this event tends to attract. I was there to soak it all in. As I commented time and again to other attendees, the five simultaneous tracks was a bit overwhelming – but it was possible to learn about the seminars you missed just by tuning into the buzz at the coffee breaks or chatting with the speakers over dinner.

Of course beyond the flood of information on glass processing and design, there was another nugget of information I took home with me. Never do I appreciate the connectedness offered by the internet as when I’m overseas. While at GPD I had numerous comments from my compatriots over there about how at the end of the day they would check their email and find already a report on the conference’s activities on USGNN.com. (I had high hopes of blogging daily but somehow between the day-long sessions and the night-long networking, I’m sure you can understand that it was hard to find the time to collect my thoughts much less post them … ) On tomorrow's USGNN newscast (stay tuned!) you’ll see some video footage from Finland, as video is another great medium more and more people are adopting to help spread information. Following GPD, as I enjoyed a few days of R&R in beautiful Helsinki, I was able to better appreciate the beauty of social media as I kept my friends and family updated on my whereabouts by posting photos and stories on my personal blog.

What about you out there? Obviously if you’re reading this blog you’re taking advantage of one of the most popular means of social media in the name of business. But what other platforms do you use? Do you tweet about glass? Are you linked in? Does your business blog? Are your Facebook friends all in the glass industry? Let me know – not only would I like to connect virtually, I’d like to include your comments on connectedness in our electronic-focused August issue of USGlass.

In this upcoming issue we’ll also be running our Best of the Web contest (in fact, our judges are reviewing those many nominations this week …!). I can’t help but think of how for the past several years we’ve urged our readers to create and update websites, as it’s a medium you can hardly do business without these days. In the future, will a website be enough or will other forms of online marketing be a necessity for keeping competitive?