BEC Conference Archives - DEBlog DEBlog

BEC: Not Just Lunch

By Debra Levy on March 5th, 2019

For me, the best part of the Building Envelope Contractors (BEC) Conference yesterday was lunch. That’s right, lunch–but not for the obvious reasons. No, the food wasn’t the reason why I enjoyed lunch so much, though Chinese was rather an inspired choice. And it wasn’t the break from the seminars, because most of them were excellent. It was what happened at lunch that made it my favorite part. Please bear with me while I explain. The conference, which began Sunday evening and runs through Tuesday afternoon at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, brought together about 600 contractors who work on the building façade. It was one of the Glass Association… Read More »

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All About It

By Debra Levy on March 7th, 2018

So the first Building Envelope Contractors (BEC) Conference under the auspices of the newly-combined Glass Association of North America-National Glass Association (known for now as NGA-GANA) is history. And it was, as just about every BEC has been, a good one. When the economy is robust, as it is now, it’s hard to fit everything into a day-and-a-half program, because people need as much time to network as they do in the sessions. So it did seem that everyone was starved for enough time to fit it all in. Still, it was nice to hear things like this: “Amount of glass work has about doubled in the past few years,”… Read More »

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How the Pie Slices

By Debra Levy on January 16th, 2017

Nick St. Denis, USGlass magazine’s research editor, just completed two major studies—one of the contract glazing industry and the other of the manufacturer/fabricator segment. While summary results of both with be available during the upcoming GANA Building Envelop Contractors (BEC) Conference, Nick has been kind enough to delve into the contract glazier research in two areas that are of intense interest to me. They most likely will be to you, too. Here are my conclusions in those areas, based on a review of the data: Gargantuan Growth: The size of the contract glazing market has increased tremendously over the last five years. In fact, it’s nearly doubled. And as we… Read More »

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Short-Lited

By Debra Levy on March 23rd, 2015

There’s a reason they call James O’Callaghan, director, Eckersley O’Callaghan, “the big O” in the glass industry. Well, they really don’t. But you will after I explain why he deserves the title. O’Callaghan’s presentation at the Glass Association of North America’s Building Envelope Contractors Conference was both enlightening and exasperating, and it detailed the inspirational and the insurmountable. In a thought-provoking presentation, O’Callaghan chronicled the growth trajectory of some of the projects he has done for a certain large international company named after a fruit that possesses the largest cash reserves ever. Yeah, that one. O’Callaghan discussed the creation of the first Apple stores and the advancement of technology,… Read More »

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Glasses with the Stars

By Debra Levy on March 9th, 2015

Apogee CEO Joseph Puishys waltzes through his presentation at GANA

It takes a skilled dancer to make a presentation before a crowd full of those who consider themselves competitors. Apogee CEO Joe Puishys executed that dance successfully this morning and walked away with the “Glasses with the Stars” equivalent of the Mirror Ball trophy. Anyone attending who expected a tap dance, or side step, was sorely disappointed, as Puishys delivered a solid waltz through a number of topics. Puishys opened day two of GANA’s Building Envelope Conference (BEC) in Las Vegas. Apogee owns business segments as diverse as Viracon, Tubelite, Wausau, Linetec and one of the largest contract glazing companies in the world, Harmon. His talk this morning before nearly… Read More »

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What Happens in Vegas

By Debra Levy on March 19th, 2012

Yeah, I’m in Vegas again, my second home this year. And this time it’s for a great reason — the Glass Association of North America’s Building Envelope Contractors (BEC) Conference. Well, that Ted Hathaway of Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope™ is such a fooler! You won’t believe what he did at the conference and this time, what happens in Vegas isn’t staying here. You see, he opened the conference with a presentation that, at first look, seemed like it was going to focus solely on how a number of innovative glazing projects were done, including London’s famous Gherkin, the new basketball stadium being built in Brooklyn and a number of other ones. Each… Read More »

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