GANAPerspectives

Get Ready
GANA Fall Conference Offers Opportunities
by Ashley M. Charest

The Glass Association of North America’s (GANA) Fall Conference has long been seen in the industry as the primary opportunity for creating helpful tools and documents and tackling the major issues facing fabricators, manufacturers and installers of commercial glazing in North America. GANA has been working proactively this past year to increase those opportunities by adding exciting lunch speakers, increasing the working items for each committee meeting at the event, and more.

Technical Know-How
“The best technical minds in the glass and glazing industry come together in September at GANA’s Fall Conference in Chicago,” says GANA’s president, Jay Phillips of Guardian Industries Corp. “These working meetings define our industry standards and provide recommendations for the appropriate use of glass to the design and construction communities.”

Leading the group of speakers who add to the already high-energy nature of the meeting is Nick Bagatelos, founder of Sacramento-based Bagatelos Architectural Glass Systems and BISEM USA, also based in Sacramento. Bagatelos, who recently partnered with Guardian Industries Corp. on a BIPV product that he is using to actively achieve his goal for net-zero buildings, appeared at the recent American Institute of Architects (AIA) annual exposition to discuss his net-zero goal for all glaziers.

“What we’ve done was brought together a simple multi-trade solution that brings all the design, electrical, engineering and structural procurement of all these diverse products,” said Bagatelos before the AIA show. “The inverters, the monitoring systems—everything is in the panels and brought into one solution that’s simple, so we can take that solution and send it to any qualified glazier and these things will almost snap together in the field.”

Paul Duffer, an industry consultant formerly of PPG Industries, has worked with the International Window Cleaning Association (IWCA) on various projects and will be discussing soil and debris commonly found on glass as a lunch speaker for the Fall Conference. His presentation comes in the midst of GANA and IWCA’s ongoing collaborations in preventing scratched glass in the window cleaning process.

“Many other critical issues will be discussed, including the appropriate glass for balconies, realistic daylighting recommendations, life cycle analysis of glass products and defending the use of glass and glazing in commercial buildings,” says Phillips. “By attending Fall Conference, you help shape our industry and ensure your interests are heard.”

Industry Stats
Michael Collins, managing director for Chicago-based Jordan Knauff and Co.’s building products group, also will be a speaker at the Fall Conference with discussions on a new GANA-sponsored market study to quantify the scope of glass manufacturing and fabrication within North America down to specific applications. The primary goal is for GANA and Collins to conduct the market study in early 2013 and offer the results to the industry soon after. At Fall Conference, Collins hopes to firm up specific applications to be included in the study.

In addition to the presentations and committee work, many other agenda items add to the importance of the event. “In addition to the working meetings, Fall Conference will include discussions on Building Enclosure Commissioning and what it means for the industry, ASHRAE 90.1 and ICC code activity updates, and an ASTM Standards update,” says Urmilla Sowell, GANA technical director.

Registration for the event is available online at the GANA website at www.glasswebsite.com, and all GANA members and other interested in the glass and glazing industry are invited to attend. To learn more about the GANA and the Fall Conference, visit our website, or follow the organization on Twitter at ww.twitter.com/glassnation. We look forward to seeing you in Chicago.

Ashley M. Charest is the account executive of the Glass Association of North America (GANA).

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