GlassBuild America opened yesterday in Atlanta at the Georgia World Congress Center. Exhibitors are offering, demonstrating and displaying a variety of products for the glass, window and door industries, including machinery and equipment, tools and supplies and much more. A number of seminars covering topics such as decorative glass, codes and shower enclosure trends are also being offered.

Though it's still rather early, exhibitors so far have been very pleased with the show traffic and crowds.

"We usually have to wait for the traffic," said Karen Zipfel, director of marketing for Kawneer of the first day. "But we've been very pleased with the crowd."

Phil Plant with Billco agreed the show was off to a strong start.

"We've been extremely busy," Plant said. "We've seen lots of traffic, and in our booth there's been a lot of interest in our cutting machines." He added they have already sold a number of lines. "We've sold four cutting lines, six washers and three spacer application machines."

Allmetal is another exhibitor staying busy at the show. Philip Collin, president, said he was surprised at how active the show had been, saying he usually sees North American shows as being not as strong as those in Europe. He said they were happy with this year's turnout, though.

"We were happy with yesterday," he said. "It was good for a first day."

While GlassBuild America offers hundreds of exhibitors, of notable interest is the absence of two of the country's largest glass fabricators-neither Arch Aluminum & Glass nor Oldcastle Glass is exhibiting at this year's event.