Okay, okay, I am writing this on the plane somewhere over the Atlantic. I’ll give you just one guess where I am going. You probably didn’t even need the guess because just about everyone in the industry knows that glasstec starts tomorrow in Dusseldorf, Germany.

There is absolutely nothing like it anywhere else in the world, including in North America. glasstec sports hall after hall of products from thousands of exhibitors. They are viewed by more than 60,000 attendees from all over the world.

This is my 16^th trip to glasstec. My first show was in 1984 and, save for a year of recession in the late 80s and a nasty sinus infection a few years ago, I have been to every one of them.

Why? Well, not only new products get introduced at this event, but revolutionary ones do too. It’s the best-first chance to view technology that may change the industry as we know it.  It’s also a great place to see people from around the world, true colleagues in a global industry.

glasstec also makes other personal memories (like bowling in the basement of a restaurant ), so I will share one of my favorites with you.  It was 2008, I believe, and I was staying in a hotel that had a breakfast room with glass walls opening on to a courtyard. To my shock, it started to snow. Now it wasn’t a heavy snow but it was covering the ground and sticking a little bit.

All of a sudden, a great commotion began in the breakfast room. You could hear people running and screaming “Snee,” “Snee” as they half-ran, half-danced out into the courtyard. It took me a minute to realize that I was watching a group of people see snow for the first time.  It wasn’t a great snow, but it turned them all instantly into children dancing through it with great delight. And they made those of us watching them feel like we were kids again too.

glasstec is special for lots of reasons. Our team will be here all week, bringing you the latest news and new products in print, video and more. If you can’t be here, I hope it makes you feel like you are.