Is Trying New Things Really All its Cracked Up to Be?

This winter I prided myself on not only trying something new, but trying something that I’d been afraid of doing for some time. This winter I skied for the first time.

I do try to push myself to try new things, especially things that might seem a bit daunting at first—and I happened to have a friend who was willing to loan me her skis and boots gratis. And so far I’ve survived two weekend trips, although there was a recent weekend when I wasn’t sure that I would return with all my limbs in place.

I guess I was feeling a little cocky after a successful first trip, and then my first few practice runs across a fairly flat practice area during this second trip. I managed a few turns, was able to plow my way to a stop more than once and didn’t mow over a single child (unlike my first trip). So late that afternoon, after quite a bit of practice, I agreed to go with my traveling companion/ski instructor up the lift to the top of the formidable “Happy Village Trail.”

I trusted the more experienced skier at my side and followed the signs to the beginner’s trail. I admired the scenery as I glided along the few bumps on the flat trail, and everything was fine. However, we soon came upon a sign that gave us a moment’s pause. “Happy Village Trail bypass” the sign said. Two large green circles marked the top. Without a map, and with the sun beginning to set and cast shadows below the trees, we didn’t have a clear idea of which was the best path to follow. The trail we’d been following seemed to circle around the villas at the top of the hill, while this bypass seemed to aim in a leisurely downward direction. Since they both looked about the same, we followed the bypass.

Oh, foolish mistake! Before long the trail had dropped off into at least a 5-degree slope, and the shadows cast by the lights on either side of the trail made the bumps in the snow appear even bigger. Within ten minutes my jacket was soaked by repeated tumbles into the snow and I was beginning to realize that the friend who had loaned me her ski boots had feet at least one shoe size smaller than mine. To cut my story short, I’ll just say that my skis were off well before we made it back to the lodge—or the bottom of the hill.

Luckily, I was eventually convinced that I did not in fact hate skiing, that it is not actually an awful excuse for a sport, etc. (words spoken in the heat of the moment I assure you, my friends from Minnesota and other points far north), and I took up my poles again the next day. I started out slowly but eventually worked my way up to a simple trail (map secure in my pocket) where I was able to build upon the skills I had learned previously. By the end of the weekend I had gotten over that one bad experience to the point that those bypasses were the most fun part of the slope. I guess you could say I got what I deserved for setting out without a map, or assuming I could take the skills learned in one arena and automatically apply them to a new situation.

It helps to have a map, or a plan, in place before setting off on something new, not to mention the guidance of individuals who have “been there and done that.” That’s just what the latest blogger for USGNN.com/USGlass, Pete Chojnacki, is looking for as he starts to add his two cents to our line-up. We’re thrilled to have Pete’s input, especially because he is looking for more input from our readers as continues to grow FabTech LLC.

I might also rub in my recent lesson that just because two paths might look the same from a distance, they aren’t necessarily identical once seen up close. Take residential and commercial construction for instance. Pete has a background in the residential side of this industry, and while he’s applying those skills he learned from his previous positions, he knows he has a bit of a learning curve for his new role.

As a matter of fact, this seems to be a lesson many primarily residential companies are learning these days; check out this recent story on the joint venture between PGT Industries and ASI LIMITED.

What do you think? Are these two trails—residential and commercial—vastly different or is the “scenery” fairly similar? Share your thoughts by sending me an email at mheadley@glass.com or stopping by our message board.

Keeping Up with the News

I hope none of you were badly impacted by the tornado that went through Atlanta on Friday night - CLICK HERE to read our coverage of this on USGNN.com. It sounds like a nasty mess there in the downtown area—check out this article from the Gainesville Times and its descriptions of “exploding glass.” From the numerous glass companies I put in calls to this morning, almost all of which were quick to tell me they didn’t have time to talk, it sounds like the repair work is already beginning.

I’ve never been that close to a tornado myself, and can’t imagine being one of the unfortunate travelers staying in one of the downtown high-rise hotels now bereft of windows. And I thought I had bad travel stories …

It’s no picnic when a natural disaster strikes but it’s times like this when our industry’s services are much in demand. After several recent interviews with glass retailers that provide a range of services from installation to custom fabrication—in preparation for the April issue of USGlass—I know that many companies out there adapt to provide what’s needed. I would guess those companies with product readily available and an “emergency board-up” note on their yellow pages ad are able to grow their business—and win loyal customers—based on the service they provide during these stressful situations.

We try to keep our readers up-to-date with how these stories in the consumer press are impacting our industry, and have run numerous weather-related stories in the past. Let me know if you find them helpful—or feel free to share how your business addresses these natural disasters. Do you bring in an extra set of hands? Offer emergency board-up services?

On a much lighter note, has anyone had a chance yet to take in The Glass Experience at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry? After reading a preview of the unique exhibit (USGlass will be running an extended version of the article in a future issue) I’m looking forward to traveling to that area to see it for myself but, in the meantime, would welcome any photos or tips from your visits.

Finally, Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you Irish folks out there and those of you who just enjoy the festivities of the day. I like to think my granddad would be pleased I actually remembered my green today, although he did always seem to enjoy pinching my sister, brother and I when, as kids, we forgot or just plain rebelled. If you forgot to wear your green today, let me encourage you to instead do something “green;” read one of my earlier posts on this blog for some ideas of how to think green!

Coincidence?

Is there anything worse for a writer than staring at a blank page and feeling an echoing blankness of mind rather than the reply of a creative spark? It’s a Monday-kind of feeling, I think. After a few days of rest and relaxation, getting back into the groove of an article may take more than a strong cup of coffee and Wilco jamming on the CD player. Sometimes it takes a coincidence to jolt you wide-awake and back into the swing of things. Like this morning, when I was pulling together links for today’s USGNN.com, I stumbled across this story, “Allied Glass Products Shows Off New Showroom in Davenport.”

As those of you who checked out last week’s blog know (and many thanks, Jim, for your comments!), I’m currently working on an article about showrooms for our April issue. It was refreshing to read this morning about yet another company that’s in the process of expanding its showroom to account for the interest consumers have in coming in to see products rather than relying on a catalog alone. Clearly having a showroom is an important factor even for those companies that already offer a variety of services. (And knowing we’re on the right track with this article is great motivation!)

According to the article from the Quad-City Times, this glass and glazing company works mainly with contractors, which brings up a question I’ve been pondering. If part of your business handles installation, but you’re selling to contractors that do installations—does one part of your business compete with the other? Or does it just help you to cover your bases, by handling commercial installation while selling to people doing residential installation? Let me know your thoughts by shooting me an email at mheadley@glass.com.

Speaking of expanding one’s offerings, we have a new addition to our blog line-up. USGlass publisher Debra Levy is now blogging at http://usglass.blogspot.com/. Be sure to check out her latest blog … and keep your eyes on USGNN for another new addition on its way later this week!

Showroom Success

As of yet I haven’t frequented a great many glass shop showrooms, but there is one type of retail showroom I do often visit. In my free time I’m an avid knitter and occasionally when I’m on travel I’ll make a point of looking up local craft or yarn shops in the telephone book to see if there’s something unique in the area (if you’ll bear with me, gentlemen, I promise there’s a point to this girly anecdote). Even when I don’t have a particular project in mind, I enjoy visiting these retail shops to see what’s available. Every craft chain has the same discount acrylics, basic wools and the trendier fringe-type yarns, but by visiting different retail shops around the country I’ve come across local yarns that vary widely in texture and colors.

Just this past weekend I found a small shop in Pennsylvania with an interesting selection. I was discouraged at first by the generic inventory set at the front of the shop, but upon further inspection I found several shelves of hand-dyed yarn toward the back of the store. It seemed an odd way to set up inventory to me; wouldn’t you want your most impressive custom material set toward the front?

Well, what about glass? When it comes to setting up your showroom, do you find it more beneficial to put your custom products up front to attract attention—or do you get better results by making the most-requested items clearly visible?

I may have plenty of experience in browsing, but I don’t know the best way to set up a showroom—although, for the April issue of USGlass, I’m hoping to find out. For our April Retailers Issue, I’m looking to learn what it takes to set up a successful showroom.

I recently received a few tips from Buddy Moses, co-owner of Ajax Glass Co. in Fort Worth, Texas. The 63-year-old company does both commercial and residential work, and also has a 12,000-square-foot showroom with a wide variety of inventory on hand. Buddy took a few minutes to talk to me about how he stocks his big retail space.

“Obviously show a lot of product,” he told me, “but make it roomy enough that people can maneuver and move around. We try to carry almost everything in stock and that way we don’t have to depend on other people to supply [product], which is just going to delay delivery times. For example, on the hardware end, people don’t carry as much as we do in stock and they have to order it. [Customers] kind of like to spend their money and just carry it out or have it immediately.”

In addition to hardware, the company offers numerous types of mirrors, glass furniture, glass sinks and shower door enclosures.

“We try to show some of everything so people can see the wide selections,” Buddy said, “and I think that’s important to try to make them in display situations so that people can get a visual of what it may look like in their homes.”

Having a wide variety of product in the showroom means that when it comes to the Ajax’s installation services, any product they’ll need is right at hand. It just happens to benefit the retail customers as well.

So is a bigger selection better? Or do you aim to set out a sampling of what you can accomplish? What’s the secret to your showroom success? Drop me a line at mheadley@glass.com and we’ll see about featuring your glass shop showroom in our April issue.

Green Greetings from Chaos

If you could see my desk this week you would begin to get some idea of just how much paper this publishing company can go through putting together a single issue of USGlass. In the four days that I’ve been back in the office since the end of Glass Week and the BEC Conference, I’ve managed to carpet my office and plaster my desk with discarded notes and edited papers, manila folders and silver paper clips camouflaged against the carpet. Folks, it is not a pretty sight.

As I’m more of a neat freak than this image conveys, my skin crawled for a minute this morning as I sunk into my chair (once I could find it), but within seconds I was caught up with the work at hand. It’s amazing how easy it is to spend the few minutes set aside for carting papers to the recycling center instead finishing one more email; to finally give in and replace the burnt bulb with a cheap light bulb in the storage closet rather than taking the time to pick out a few energy-efficient bulbs during the next lunch break.

I’ve always made an effort to reuse the manila folders until they disintegrate, and aim to print on both sides of each sheet of paper before discarding it, but up until a few weeks ago our office’s efforts at recycling wasn’t a priority. However, like many of the companies that we write about, Key Communications is pushing its employees to go greener. At a recent staff meeting, Key’s vice president of business development, Tara Taffera, put on another hat, that of Green Officer. Like many of us, Tara has gone green at home, but now she’s helping to remind us all of ways we can be more environmentally responsible at work as well—like taking those twice-used papers and sticking them in a box to be carted weekly to a nearby recycling drop-off location rather in than the conveniently located circular file.

Let’s face it, green is no longer a trend, it’s an economical approach to making the world a better place. It’s become not only an accepted way to do business but a priority for many companies—as was evident during the recent Glass Association of North America (GANA) sponsored events mentioned above.

For example, during the Glass Week Decorative Division meeting, GANA technical director Greg Carney encouraged all of the association’s divisions to focus on ways to contribute to green and LEED research. “If you have resources focused on this, share them,” he told the members. The decorative division agreed to form a task group on this topic.

The Building Envelope Contractors Division heard the plea. They agreed to develop a green construction task force as well.

“Daylighting is one of the biggest things out there and a lot of people don’t have a clue,” noted chairperson Max Perilstein.

Likewise, the Flat Glass Manufacturing Division explored the possibility of creating a climate change committee, a suggestion that grew into a green committee that would examine climate change among other factors.

As GANA executive vice president Bill Yanek pointed out during that division’s meeting, now is a prime time to start aiming to affect green legislation. “You’re going to have new administration, new Congress, new legislation,” Yanek said. “If you don’t act soon, you’re going to leave the playing field and you might have to live with what comes out of Washington.”

True enough. I’ve mentioned in this blog before the energy-related legislation coming out of Washington. Look out for the magazine’s March issue and its energy-focused article for more on that, and why what we now consider green may soon just be the way it is.

The Real Place to be in Las Vegas

When you open your speech with the words “This isn’t going to end up on a blog somewhere is it?” you’re asking for trouble.

Just kidding, Max.

In truth, as entertaining as it was to see Max Perilstein, chair of the Glass Association of North America’s (GANA) Building Envelope Contractor’s (BEC) division hit the stage during this morning’s opening session of the BEC Conference with Ms. Rio in tow (headdress, sequins and all), it hasn’t been the (only) highlight of the conference thus far.

I’ve been here at the Rio in Las Vegas since Wednesday covering GANA’s Glass Week. While I learned a great deal following the technical discussions during the various division meetings, I was wowed during last night’s BEC opening reception when it seemed that all of the conference’s more than 700 registrants were in attendance.

Although my first BEC, I’ve been told that the large number of attendants is just a continuation of the tremendous growth this conference has seen. And last night it seemed fairly evident that the glazing contractors now here in Vegas know full well the important networking opportunities this event offers, as the conversations that began at the reception continued long into the night (or so I hear).

More impressive, it seems those same attendants are aware of the usefulness of today’s full schedule of seminars, as the room has been packed through this morning’s sessions (Check out http://www.usgnn.com/ to read more about those sessions).

Glass Week had its own definite networking opportunities. On Friday night that conference’s attendants came together for a formal dinner and the presentation of a number of awards. In particular, Stan Smith, GANA executive director, was called repeatedly to the stage in recognition of his upcoming retirement. While pulled in many directions during this busy week, Stan has agreed to spend a few minutes later this week sharing with us at USGNN.com a few reflections on his time at GANA and his plans for his retirement ahead.

Incoming executive director Bill Yanek was also honored—as much for the time he has devoted thus far to the association as for his birthday, which he was celebrating on Friday (Ms. Rio helped add to the festivities with a cake and candles while GANA members chipped in with a close-to-on-tune rendition of Happy Birthday).

Bill Coddington of W.S. Coddington Consulting was brought to the stage with a presentation of a GANA Honorary Membership due to his contributions to the industry and association (for more on Bill's contributions, CLICK HERE). After this week, with all that has been accomplished during Glass Week meetings (check out USGNN and the April issue of USGlass for full details about that) the value of this lifetime membership was clear.

I’ll be here in Vegas through tomorrow afternoon, so please stop by and say hello—or send me an email on how you can get more information about next year’s conference.

A Full Glass Week Approaches

In addition to finishing up work on the March USGlass Book of Lists (email me here if you still need information on submitting a form), I’ve been working on another list of sorts: my packing list. As I’m sure many of you are as well, I’m eagerly heading toward warmer weather this week for the upcoming Glass Week and Building Envelope Contractors (BEC) conferences, February 13-19, sponsored by the Glass Association of North America (GANA).

It’s going to be a long, busy week out in Las Vegas. While this will be my first year in attendance at BEC—an event I’m much looking forward to, as I’ve been speaking with a number of glazing contractors lately regarding their spots in the Book of Lists—I have some experience regarding Glass Week. One thing I recall from last year’s event is that I wasn’t the only newcomer. Last year marked the first meeting of the Fire-Rated Glazing Council, chaired by Jerry Razwick of Technical Glass Products. The council had set its sights on becoming a forum for communications on fire-rated glazing issues; developing technical resources for industry and design professionals; supporting the development, enhancement and maintenance of product standards and codes; and providing consensus on industry positions on fire-rated glazing issues to improve the knowledge and effectiveness of organizations and agencies interested in fire-rated glazing and fire-rated glazing code provisions.

Last year was also a first meeting for the Decorative Glass Division under elected chair Kris Vockler of ICD High Performance Coatings.

As I recall, last year’s Glass Week featured a presentation from Rachel Long of Hospitality Design magazine on decorative trends regarding glass. Her slide presentation was filled with images demonstrating high contrast between materials, such as a mix of textures and colors; chameleon materials; and the trend toward building green, with examples of how glass can let natural light into a space. Now I’m sure we’ve all noticed by now that the green “trend” has hardly slowed this year, but I’ll be interested to learn what this GANA division has to say about decorative glass trends and how they’ve changed or picked up steam in the last year.

Now, with a year of work under their belts, I’m looking forward to hearing the updates from these two groups, in addition to the latest news from the more seasoned GANA divisions.

CLICK HERE to read more about last year’s Glass Week conference. Otherwise be sure to stay tuned to USGNN.com™ for daily updates from this year’s event—whether you make it to Las Vegas or not!