Author: GAWDA MEDIA

GAWDA Continues to Raise the Bar with the 2025 SMC More than 750 GAWDA members converged in the Lone Star State for the 2025 GAWDA Spring Management Conference. With a theme of “Sustaining a Resilient Culture,” this year’s SMC was a perfect way to celebrate GAWDA’s 80th Anniversary in 2025. The show had something for everyone, as attendees had the opportunity to hear from four different and distinct Main Stage Presenters, who discussed topics that ran the gamut from the political landscape, to pursuing your crazy ideas, to the inspiring, and all culminating with a discussion with our Industry Keynote,…

By Steve Guglielmo and Hector Villarreal GAWDA’s Technology Committee was announced just over a year ago, and the new committee has hit the ground running, tackling important topics like cybersecurity, e-commerce, and, of course, the incredibly hot-button topic of AI. During this year’s Educational Sessions at the Spring Management Conference in Dallas, the Technology Committee will host two sessions: “Cybersecurity: Experiences and Lessons Learned” and “E-Commerce: Lighting the Way to B2B E-Commerce Success.” We had the opportunity to speak with Technology Committee co-chair Hector Villarreal about the upcoming SMC and everything that the new committee has achieved during its first…

SafTCart’s culture has allowed the company to become an industry leader in cart manufacturing. This winter, I made my first trip ever to Mississippi to check out SafTCart, located in Clarksdale, about an hour and a half south of the Memphis Airport. With 150,000 square feet of manufacturing space inside several buildings on a 15-acre lot in a business park, SafTCart continues to expand its footprint within the industry. I was fortunate to be hosted on this visit by Executive Vice President Jim Herring, who was as gracious a host as you would expect if you’ve met him at a GAWDA…

Tired of manually setting up new accounts, logging cylinder information, and calculating rental costs? Save time, eliminate human error, and achieve cost savings with the introduction of new Datacor AI technologies, to be rolled out in stages over the next 12 months.  The following information is a summary of an interview with Lou Zhang, Senior Lead, Data Science at Datacor who is a key contributor to the Datacor AI initiatives. USE CELL PHONE CAMERA TO STREAMLINE DATA ENTRY  The first AI feature to be rolled out in 2025 includes the use of a cell phone camera to input information quickly and…

NWSA President 1992-1993 Butler Gas Products By Jack Butler In my GAWDA (then NWSA, National Welding Supply Association) President Year of 1993, time was the currency and speed was the base, as the internet was rapidly accelerating business methods and Peter McCausland was consolidating our association membership under the Airgas marquee. We had the initial wave of Baby Boomers joining the industry, and I had the honor and fun of serving NWSA alongside Jack Dammann, Randy Squibb, Dan Paris, Jim Robertson, Gary Armstrong, Bill Higley, Chip Valentine, Dave Mahoney, and current GAWDA Hall of Famers Bob Roberts and Wally Brant.…

As GAWDA celebrates its 80th Anniversary in 2025, it’s fitting that this year’s theme is “Sustaining a Resilient Culture.” While the technology continues to change, the backbone of our industry and association have remained remarkably consistent through these eight decades and it is due, in large part, to the culture that has been built by the membership of GAWDA (and NWSA before it). This year’s Board of Directors and Executive Committee take their duty as stewards of that culture extremely seriously, as we look to continue to sustain that culture for the next 80 years Our volunteer leaders are on…

Looking Ahead to 2025 In a New Regulatory Environment Following the 2024 Elections, what can GAWDA members expect from a regulatory standpoint in 2025? By Tom Badstubner, Marilyn Dempsey, Michael Dodd, Rick Schweitzer, and Steve Guglielmo Much of the First Quarter Issue of Welding & Gases Today will discuss the impact of the 2024 Elections on the GAWDA Membership. GAWDA members discussed the economic impacts at length in the distributor and supplier forecasts, which can be read on page 58-69. But from a regulatory perspective, the next four years will look very different than the last four, as the Trump…

By Dave Mahoney NWSA President, 1999-2000 | Noble Gas Solutions Becoming involved in GAWDA was one of the smartest decisions I ever made. It is surely one of the significant highlights of my career. In the Spring of 1980, I attended my first Spring Management Conference. I will never forget Bill Sturgeon running up the center aisle and jumping onto the stage in a Canadian hockey jersey. He was excited and immediately got my attention. I loved it! From that point on, all Presidents would sit in the front row and, when introduced, they would walk to the stage to…