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Glasslam CEO Steve Howes recently took a few hours off from the spacer plant in Freeport, Bahamas to host a group of new customers for some deep-sea fishing.  Steve has some of the world’s best fish stories, but everyone on the boat has a new one as Steve caught one of the biggest Barracudas ever seen in the Bahamas.

While everyone else was obviously excited by the big catch, Howes was clearly focused on What’s Next.

“This is a very big fish, but I spotted an even bigger Barracuda at the GlassBuild Show in Atlanta.  I plan to reel that predator in very soon. “

To be continued……….

Just finished attending GlassBuild 2011 in Atlanta.

It is reported by GlassBuild that there were 1230 booths for this show and 393 exhibiting companies.  That evidently means that the equivalent of 1230 10×10 booths were occupied (123,000 square feet), so the average exhibitor used up 313 square feet.

Fun Facts -

The Georgia World Congress Center has 3,900,000 square feet

Building B, where GlassBuild 2011 was held, contains about 608,000 square feet.

GlassBuild 2011 used up 3% of the GWCC and 20% of Building B. So it is a relatively modest show in the trade show world.  By contrast, GlassTec in Dusseldorf has around 1300 exhibitors, 700,000 square feet and 45,000 visitors.

According to GlassBuild, there were 6000 registered attendees.  I’d say it’s safe to assume that the average booth (313 square feet – almost a 20×20) would require a staffing of around 6 workers.  A booth like Quanex’s (6600 square feet, or 5% of the entire show) had as many as 100 registered workers/attendees).  So the 393 exhibitors would have required around 2400 workers.

That brings the 6000 registered attendees down to about 3600.

This would explain why it seemed as if there were an awful lot of BLUE BADGES (exhibitor) out there on the show floor.  At times, it was hard to find a RED BADGE (visitor).  And many of the RED BADGES belonged to manufacturers reps of the exhibitors.

Exhibit space cost somewhere near $25/square foot.  That means $3,000,000 was spent on exhibit space.  An exhibit booth costs around $150/square foot to build, and if we’re generous and say they get used 3 times, we can say the exhibit booths cost another $6,000,000.  It probably costs at least $300/day/person, including travel, food & lodging for the 2400 show workers.  That’s another $2,000,000.  Setting up and transporting booths cost maybe $10/square foot.  That’s another $1,000,000.

So at least $12,000,000 was spent on GlassBuild 2011 so that 3600 people could walk around and see some industry booths.  That comes out to spending $3,300 per RED BADGE.

They should be GOLD BADGES.  Fun with numbers.

We made this video to drive home the point that you should be able to Drive Your Own Business!

Be sure and say “hi” if you make it to Atlanta!

New friends…..new business!

Steve Howes at small Beijing window factory (not sure if it's a small factory or they make small windows?)

Steve Howes giving a training session at very large Chinese factory (or describing why shorts were a good idea)

Very polite young Chinese woman, pretending to understand extreme British accent

Steve Howes at Beijing Window Factory (and saving a seat for very small person)

At a time when it seems very difficult to make any money in the glass business, Glasslam has an affordable, easy-to-use system that makes it easy!  Imagine a one-person-business or a one-person profit center, turning regular commodity float glass into colored glass products that can be used for trendy architectural design.

Now, you can create your own coloured glass instantly at very low-cost and with little or no waste. Colour Cote™ is a unique in-house glass painting system for creating colored glass products. It includes Clear Base Resin, color pigments, and proprietary software, which enables you to easily duplicate RAL, Pantone, and visual Swatch Colors. Just follow the formula to quickly mix the desired color in-house. There is no waiting and no waste because you mix only what you need, when you need it!

Colour Cote™ treated glass is ideal for wall coverings in kitchens, bathrooms, as countertops, and for commercial applications, such as spandrel glass.

Okay, here’s the deal.  Everyone now has a mobile phone.  Everyone has email.  Almost everyone has a scanner.  You can reach anyone anywhere.  Lets get rid of company voicemail.  Let’s get rid of a central company phone number.  There is no reason for it.  List everyone’s phone number on your website.  Their mobile phone already has voicemail.  If they don’t call you back, call someone who will. No more “press one for customer service, press two for accounts payable”…….shoot me.

Don’t fax stuff.  Email it.  That fax machine noise should be a Smithsonian exhibit. Faxes can get picked up by the wrong person – they use ink and paper and trees and who knows what else.  I’ve got to stop – my blood is boiling.  Just answer your phone when it rings.  What could go wrong?