What do “Baseball’s Greatest Catcher,” Johnny Bench, and Giroux Glass have in common?
Our recent involvement with the Glass Association of North America (GANA)!
It was a cool and beautiful Sunday on the Las Vegas Strip when I arrived at Caesar’s Palace for GANA’s annual BEC Conference. The event, which spanned three days from February 21 to 23, was a stimulating and informative way to kick-off my week. It honed in on many industry-specific factors, including education, relationships, business growth, and development, and how they are affecting those of us in contract glazing.
Event sponsors including Guardian Industries, Viracon, Dow Corning, AGC Glass Co., Kawneer, TGP, and W&W Glass, gave helpful aid to the discussion.
To begin the conference, on Sunday there was a welcome reception/mix-and-mingle hosted by Viracon, and on Monday, John Kimberlain (with Dow Corning and BEC Division Chair) and Bill Yanek (GANA’s Executive VP) led us into the next few days of lectures and demonstrations.
Here were some of the highlights:
- A major technical highlight was the Q&A session on design and fabrication of oversized glass. Expert panelists from Agnora, W&W Glass, and Viracon discussed the ins and outs of creating larger-than-typical glass lites and gave insights on glass handling and installation logistics as well.
- A useful glass supply and demand update was given by Serge Martin from AGC. It’s obvious that demand for architectural glass products is out-pacing what’s available via domestic production.
- Kai-Uwe Bergmann from BIG gave a riveting presentation of BIG’s most impressive projects, in some of the coolest to hottest climates in the world. It was way cool!
- Peggy Noe Stevens of Peggy Noe Stevens & Associates provided a very interesting look into professional and personal branding. Sit up straight and put down your phone!
MLB Hall of Famer Johnny Bench gave an entertaining and motivational speech that was a hit with the audience. His tip of the day: do your personal best and don’t get too caught up in what others are doing. His main talking points were on attitudes you carry with you each day, “effort for excellence,” accepting individual responsibility, taking advantage of opportunities that come your way, and using the knowledge and information you learn from everyone you meet.