This past weekend, I read Harvard Business Review’s “Reskilling in the Age of AI” issue. The subhead, New approaches for managers and employees, promised insights for the work we’re focused on at the National Glass Association (NGA). This includes NGA’s newest training program, MyGlassFAB™ for glass fabricators, launching at GlassBuild America, Oct. 31-Nov. 2, in Atlanta.
Artificial intelligence and the skills-based learning embedded in MyGlassFAB™ to help production personnel become more intelligent and productive workers on the factory floor may seem like opposites, but I see it as one learning continuum. Skilling a workforce must come before reskilling.
What do AI and even the launch of MyGlassFAB™ have to do with GlassBuild America, the trade show? For starters, what better venue than GlassBuild to launch any new product? Just ask the 476 exhibiting companies, including 94 new exhibitors, why they’re excited to see you in their booths this year.
For me, it’s about actual intelligence. For more than 30 years, I’ve seen first-hand how trade shows deliver this vital resource. It’s the AI you find in every booth, every show aisle and during the many conversations you’ll have over one to three days.
I’m always surprised by people who don’t attend GlassBuild, even for one day. I want to ask, “how many new ideas, new opportunities, nuggets of business intel and early warnings of a business threat do you think you missed by staying in your office?” No doubt some artificial intelligence chatbot already has the answer for the incalculable loss of potential.
I hope you will join me and 8,000 of our industry’s forward-looking business operators when we gather to learn about all things glass and fenestration and what’s ahead. I promise you will make lasting, human connections and derive personal insights that, so far, can’t be replicated by artificial intelligence.