It's Always Something

It’s Always Something …

It’s tough when you’ve been there at the beginning and now you are there at the end.

I’m spending most of this week at the National Auto Glass Conference in Orlando, Florida. A long time ago (20 years) in a different lifetime, I was involved in the creation of this event. I take a bit of pride in that. Twenty years ago, the auto glass industry was an active and vibrant one. Insurance company influence was limited to a phone call or two from the local agent. Networks were just beginning to pop up around the country. Groups such as AGRSS, IGA and NWRA had yet to form. No one knew what the Internet was.

This Conference has been held in many different cities and venues over the years, visiting Memphis, Tampa, Marco Island, Fl, Tuscon (four times), Phoenix and Minneapolis among others. It’s hosted a great variety of speakers from within and outside the industry. It didn’t have a trade show for the first decade, then it did, then it didn’t again for the last two years. At its height, the conference attracted more than 1,000 retailers.

But the best thing about the Auto Glass Conference has never been the seminars or the show; it’s always been the people you see there. Twenty years ago, it provided a way for the industry (which had always played second fiddle to the architectural glass industry) to converge around common issues at one location.

It’s always something.

Over the years, the conference has also been part of a number of watershed moments. The modern auto glass era was born at the 1991 Conference in Phoenix when network founder Joe Kellman admonished the group that they would have to “work a full day instead of half” to make a living. When he said that the industry had been ripping off insurance companies for years, you could hear an audible gasp and see a physical reaction in the room. I have always wondered if that speech was aimed more as an admonishment of the glass industry or a sales pitch to the insurance industry.

The event has also been square in the middle of tragedy as deaths by two attendees occurred—sadly, one of a heart attack and another a drowning. The conference has had to duck hurricane Isidore at Marco Island in 2002 and Ivan in Tampa in 2004. Two years ago, there was a bomb scare and, just today, a fire alarm emptied the hotel in the mid-afternoon.

It’s always something.

And, of course, the Auto Glass Conference had been scheduled for September 12-14, 2001 in Minneapolis—a conference that never happened in the wake of September 11 the day before. I’ll never forget that I was already in Minneapolis sitting in an AGRSS Council meeting when we got the first word of the plane crashes. I ended up driving all the way home to Virginia later than week.

Times change, industries change and economies tank. During last year’s conference, organizers announced that the 2009 Conference will be the last in its current form and so it will be. So I raise a glass to an end and a beginning.

It’s always something.

Punched Out

Well it’s been about 15 years since I made a mistake like the one I did in my story on Russ Ebeid’s great and prophetic speech at the BEC Conference. Thankfully, a number of our alert readers let me know about it. Not since I said Waiting for Godot was written by Eugene Ionesco (it wasn’t) have I been so embarrassed by a wrong word or two.

Let me start by saying that I don’t know much about prize-fighting. Never even saw a bout, and I wouldn’t know a heavyweight from waterweight, or is that welter weight? No weight--I mean wait--water weight I’m familiar with.

Anyway, the general rule in journalism is to write what you know and, if you don’t know it, look it up. So while I searched my brain for a phrase that would convey the depth of power that Mr. Ebeid’s words had delivered to the audience (because his speech had some knock-you-down stunning information in it) I came up with gut-punched, but somehow confused it with sucker-punched. And I didn’t look it up to check.

I feel especially bad because I admire Russ Ebeid as much as a person could, so to somehow suggest that he was involved in sucker-punching anything or anybody is horrifiying. The article has been corrected and the offending word striken.

The readers who contacted me were very kind, saying that they knew I meant gut-punch but had written the wrong thing. Even Earnest Thompson of Guardian itself was pleasant. “That’s okay,” he said, “maybe you had just been listening to too much Puscifer lately,”

I appreciate that, and I sure hope the big guy himself will forgive me. See, I already messed up this week. I knew he had just had a birthday and had promised him a cake. So I had brought some birthday candles with me and was going to run over when they served dessert at the Glass Week dinner and pop them in his cake. But, alas, they gave us a poached pear. I spent the better part of dessert wondering if one could put candles in the whipped cream and not ignite a fire. I erred on the side of caution. No candles.

So Mr. Ebeid, if perhaps you see you way clear to read this, I owe you more than a birthday cake now. You name it. Any punishment and I’ll take it. You want me to hit a punching bag (or myself) with Everready gloves for an hour? You got it. Want me to learn all the names of every prize-fighting champion in the world? I’m on it. I will even—gulp—watch all four Rocky movies (including even the third one) in a row. But I will never, ever again confuse a sucker-punch with a gut-punch again. My apologies.

BEC Day Two

Today I am headed back to the East Coast from Vegas as the BEC is ending. Yup. I’m on the plane and my laptop battery doesn’t seem to want to hold a charge so this will be a short one. The low battery light is already on.

Monday—the first full day of the Building Envelop Contractor’s Conference (BEC) actually brought me hope. Russ Ebeid’s thought provoking presentation gave everyone in the room quite a bit to think about (see related story for more) and Bill Yanek detailed the excellent work he is leading for GANA in the energy arena. Bill is right that the glass industry has a target on its back. As deadly as a silent killer like carbon monoxide seeping into your lungs at night, the possibility of federally-mandated greenhouse gas emission control could choke, debilitate and ultimately kill our entire industry.

It was interesting that Bill mentioned the industry’s old “friends” at ASHRAE are developing regulations that are possibly anti-glass. This will sound familiar to anyone who has been around awhile. Shades of 90.1P—you know the let’s-get-rid-of-the-glass-so-we-can-keep-installing-inefficient-HVAC-systems regulations promulgated by ASHRAE 20 or so years ago.
This industry needs to come and stay together on this issue.

With so much bad news in the economy, it was nice to have a good news day. The BEC top ten list is always a hit and gave the crowd some deep chuckles ….I caught too with John Dwyer of Syracuse Glass. His company is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year …. Also talked with Craig Carson who recently patented a neat new product (more in the future pages of USGlass) that is working well in Colorado…saw Bob Lang of Billco, the busiest, hardest working retired guy in the industry…day two, though a long one, was a good.

Glass Week Ends; BEC Starts

Report from Sunday, February 15


The question “how are you doing?” has taken on new meaning here as GANA’s Glass Week ends and the BEC Conference begins. Where people used to respond with updates on their lives or their health, people instinctively now feel they are being asked about the health of their company in light of the economy.

A question of “how are you doing?” invariably leads to a response of “we are hanging in there,” “we are holding on and hoping it turns” or a variation thereof. The biggest discussions center around the economy of course.

The lead industry story is about the changing ownership –and face-- of the primary glass manufacturers. With two of the manufacturers believed to be in play and another two under significant economic distress, it will be interesting to see how this year turns out. I wouldn’t be surprised to see changes in ownership yet again among some of the primaries.

One of the nicest parts of Glass Week/BEC is getting to catch up with people in the industry…and there was a lot of catching up to do. Both Russ Ebeid of Guardian and GANA’s executive vice president Bill Yanek were in the process of celebrating birthdays...”All you have to do is say you were out with Ren Bartoe last night and everyone will understand how you feel,” said ICD’s Kris Vockler at the beginning of her report on the decorative glass division, “and I was out with Ren Bartoe, what more can I say?” Arch’s Max Peristein was attempting to be in two places at the same as outgoing BEC chairperson as incoming chairperson Henry Taylor raced back from Switzerland to Las Vegas. Valerie Block of DuPont glowed as she talked about missing the newest addition to her family—her first grandchild, a boy.

Glass Week: for Young and Old

Between the holidays and the weather, I haven’t had too much road time lately. All that changed earlier this week as I made my way westward to the Glass Association of North America (GANA)’s Glass Week and Building Envelop Conference (BEC).

I spent a minute on the plane contemplating the chaos that is always Las Vegas and anticipating an even more frenetic pace as hundreds of thousands of loving couples made their way to Vegas for Valentine’s Day. The location of the GANA meeting—the Palms Hotel—has been featured on the 2005 reality show “Party at the Palms” as a pretty well known a place for the “in” crowd in Vegas.

As the cab approached the hotel and the marquee came into view, I cranked my neck to see who was headlining here over the weekend. My heart sunk when the sign came into focus. “This Weekend,” it shouted, “Puscifer!”

Puscifer?

Who or what is a Puscifer? I’m guessing by the devilish looks of the billboard that it rhymes with Lucifer. (Note reader: I was going to link to Puscifer’s site here so you could hear the “music” and figure out who, or what, it was but the content wouldn’t have made the family hour, if you know what I mean.)

Anyway, seeing Puscifer on the billboard was definitely a watershed moment for me because, up to this point, even if I didn’t listen to them, I’d always had a working knowledge of who the group was. Thus my lack of awareness of Puscifer –whether a he, she or a group of either or both—reminded me that I was probably way too old for this hotel. With a deep sigh I paid the cab drive and went in.

Then, two pleasant surprises. First, the Palms is actually a lovely hotel and it hasn’t made me feel too old for it at all. The rooms are nicely appointed and, more importantly, it’s not gargantuan. It’s still big, but it doesn’t overwhelm; you don’t have to put your jogging shoes on to get to get from the sleeping rooms to the meeting rooms. And the staff has been exceedingly helpful.

Second, (nice surprise for me, not so nice for Vegas): Rather than Valentine’s Day, it looks more like Thanksgiving or Christmas here. The downturn Max mentioned in his blog last month has not abated. Vegas, evidentally, continues to feel the effects of the economy as much as anywhere. Vegas is actually empty.

Of course, the important part of this week is not the hotel or the city, it’s the substance of the meetings as GANA is the substance and the conscience of the glass industry. To learn more about what’s going on please visit http://www.usgnn.com/. Be sure to stop by our video reports there as well and don't forget to visit Max Perilstein's blog. for up-to-the minute meeting flavor. I’ll be back with periodic, more substantive reports over the next few day.

In the meantime, I'm really getting into this place and so has our crew. Some of our editors even volunteered to work late tonight and stop by the Playboy Club so they could see the etchings of the bunnies on the glass railings up there. What a dedicated group.

The First Valentine

When we were growing up, my sister (who is two years younger) and I (who was about four) engaged in a fixed ritual nearly every week night. We knew that at exactly 5:50 p.m. we should start walking up the block and, a few minutes later, my father would appear like magic. We could see him in the distance as he came around the corner walking the last leg of his 15 minute stroll from Long Island Railroad station.

The minute we saw him, Patti and I would break out in the fastest run we could shouting “Daddy, Daddy” until we literally careened into him, jumping and smothering him in hugs and kisses. Now my Dad didn’t like us running too much, and he liked us shouting even less, but somehow he never complained about this custom.

Valentine’s Days were especially exciting because he would come around the corner with a big chocolate heart for my Mother and smaller ones for each of us. I remember being so excited about this (and not really because of the candy although that was good) because somehow I knew that a box of chocolate was a grown-up gift and that I—all of four or six or even fifteen—was getting one. “I’m the luckiest guy today,” he would always say, “ because I have three valentines.”

My Dad never missed bringing us a heart each year, never listening when we were in our teens and told him we wouldn’t eat the chocolate, not stopping even after we told him it was old-fashioned, even after we’d moved on to cities and spouses and families of our own, nor after he’d retired and didn’t walk home from work any more. On Valentine's Day he always had that little something for his three valentines.

So for all Dads out there, including my own, who gave their hearts to their daughters all those years ago, know that others may come and go but, on Valentine’s Day, we all harken back to the guy who really was—and still is--our first love.

Happy Valentine’s Day!
Deb