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The Southwest Regional Meeting took place near Houston from May 20-21. Nearly 100 attendees were on-hand at the South Shore Harbor Resort & Conference Center to see presentations from from Jesse Thompson from the Federal Reserve of Dallas, Chuck McConnell from the Center for Carbon Management in Energy and an incredibly motivational presentation from Nick Scott a two-time world powerlifting champion and wheelchair bodybuilder. Thank you to Regional Co-Chairs Ashley Madray and Gary Degenhardt for organizing this year’s event and to everyone who attended. Click the button below to see pictures from the event. If you attended this year’s event…

Keeping tabs on one’s competitors is not a bad idea, particularly when they come from alternate channels and are somewhat out of sight. Welding and packaged gases distributors began seeing some industry specific SKUs slip into alternate channels with the emergence of eBay. Managers would become distressed when a customer would appear in one’s showroom, see a machine sitting on the floor, and remark that they had just purchased the identical product from an e-Bay site. At that point, terms like B2C and B2B were not even in our vocabulary.  We learned quickly that Amazon, and a whole group of…

Lead with Purpose, Serve with Heart Held Friday, April 19 – Sunday, April 21, 2024Grand Hyatt San AntonioGAWDA continues to raise the bar each and every year, as the 2024 Spring Management Conference in San Antonio, Texas, set yet another new attendance record. This year’s SMC saw a record 808 attendees who gathered for a whirlwind weekend from April 19-21st. With a theme of “Leading with Purpose, Serving with Heart,” gratitude, culture and service were the names of the game. Those “soft skills” which Main Stage Presenter Adrian Gostick rebranded as “Power Skills” combined with the weekend’s musical theme had…

GAWDA Distributors Object to Calls for Economic Instability, Project Robust Growth Across the Board: Standing athwart negative headlines and consumer sentiment, GAWDA distributors expect a big year Each year, the first Quarter Issue of Welding & Gases Today is our Annual Economic Forecast Issue. We speak with GAWDA Distributors, Suppliers (page 64), sister organizations like the American Welding Society (page 70) and Compressed Gas Association (page 72) and combine them with the quarterly ITR Economic Forecast (page 77) to paint as complete a picture of the economic outlook of the industry as we possibly can. One of the biggest lessons…

For decades, companies across industries would seek out manufacturing possibilities around the world – taking advantage of less expensive labor, cheaper rents, and relaxed regulations. However, over the last 10 years or so, the tide has begun to turn, and companies are gradually bringing back more of their manufacturing operations to the U.S. There are several reasons driving this shift including the shrinking delta in labor costs between U.S. vs. overseas locations, rising transportation costs, IP theft, and several others. But severe supply chain disruptions during the pandemic, which resulted in shortages of supplies coming from overseas, mostly due to…

Is your Company Celebrating an Anniversary in 2024? If you are not listed below, and are celebrating a company anniversary in 2024, please contact us to be featured in our third quarter issue of Welding & Gases Today.  Contact Us Member Name Founded Year PFERD Inc. 1799 Roengten USA 1899 ESAB Welding & Cutting 1904 Federated Insurance 1904 Hartman Brothers, Inc 1904 City Carbonic LLC 1909 The Harris Products Group 1914 Arcos Industries, LLC 1919 Earlbeck Gases & Technologies 1919 Keen Compressed Gas Company 1919 DeLille Oxygen Company 1924 JAZ Brush USA 1924 Rexarc International Inc. 1924 Rocky Mountain Air…

Annual Convention 2023 Recap President’s Welcome Photo Gallery Sponsored by Gas Equipment Company By GAWDA MEDIAOctober 4, 2023 GAWDA Gives Back to Maui at the 2023 Annual Convention By GAWDA MEDIAOctober 3, 2023 Cruise with Women of Gases & Welding and Young Professionals at the Annual Convention 2023 By GAWDA MEDIAOctober 4, 2023 AC23: Opening Business Session By GAWDA MEDIAOctober 13, 2023 AC23: Industry Hospitalities By GAWDA MEDIAOctober 17, 2023 AC23: Contact Booth and Networking 360 By GAWDA MEDIAOctober 13, 2023 AC23: Closing Business Session By GAWDA MEDIAOctober 13, 2023 AC 23: President’s Farewell Gala By GAWDA MEDIAOctober 13, 2023…

Presentation of GAWDA Gives Back Award Robert then welcomed his beautiful wife Missy and his middle-son Kyle to the stage to discuss the recipient of the 2023 GAWDA Gives Back Award, the Malama Family Recovery Center. Missy discussed how the charity was near and dear to the family’s heart before turning the mic over to Kyle who gave an incredibly raw and powerful speech about his own history with substance abuse and how he was able to escape the other side of the darkness. When he was finished, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Then, representatives from the…

GAWDA members will have to battle through a slowdown in the second half of the year. By Steve Guglielmo and Brian Beaulieu Following three tumultuous years marked by outside influences on the business community, 2023 will see a return to a sense of normalcy in 2023. However, with that normalcy comes the prospect of a slowdown in the second half of the year. We had the opportunity to speak with GAWDA’s Chief Economist and President and CEO of ITR Economics Brian Beaulieu about what GAWDA members can expect this year. Check out the full first quarter forecast on pages 58…

After another record-setting year in 2022, GAWDA looks to carry its momentum into 2023. President Robert Anders laid out his vision for the year from the stage at the Annual Convention in San Diego. He vowed to “live every day with intentionality” and challenged those in attendance to do the same. The GAWDA Board of Directors sets the tone for the membership throughout the year. Our volunteer leaders are on the front lines of the industry and can take the issues facing our industry and help to craft an effective strategy for the association. Members of the Board of Directors…

By Paul Bernier, ASP We all understand that when welding outdoors or in well-ventilated areas, the fumes created usually dissipate and are eliminated. But what about working indoors during the winter? With rising energy costs, weld shops need to conserve heat in the building, while keeping employees safe from weld fumes. Mitigation systems can be expensive, but proper ventilation is a necessity for the safety and comfort of the work environment. Fortunately, as a distributor, we can supply our customers with everything needed for PRODUCT. Weld fumes introduce carcinogenic toxins to the lungs. Depending on what material is being welded,…

GAWDA’s consultants discuss what GAWDA members can expect in 2023. By Tom Badstubner, Marilyn Dempsey, Mike Dodd, Rick Schweitzer, and Steve Guglielmo The GAWDA Consultant Program is a GAWDA member benefit that is included as part of your member dues to the association. It is consistently rated as one of the most valuable member benefits that GAWDA provides. Between the four of them, GAWDA’s consultants bring more than 100 years of industry-specific experience to the association. With this being the first issue of 2023, we look back on lessons learned from last year and what we expect to see from…

Ask Your Board is a feature that runs in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Quarter Issues of Welding & Gases Today. The purpose of Ask Your Board is to ask common business questions that all GAWDA members might be dealing with and to see how GAWDA’s Board of Directors are dealing with these issues within their own companies. To submit a question for GAWDA’s Board Members to consider, please email [email protected]  THE QUESTION The theme for this year’s GAWDA Annual Convention is “Building a Bridge for Future Leaders.” How does your company do a good job of identifying and preparing…

The past three years have been difficult for all of us. From the depths of the pandemic, we returned to in-person business, but the “new normal” changed the way we worked. And now, as we deal with the fallout from the pandemic, including unprecedented inflation, supply chain issues, and labor shortages, it has, at times, been difficult to find things to celebrate. But through the gloom, GAWDA members have continued to persevere and thrive. This year, we recognize those GAWDA members who are celebrating milestone anniversaries in 2022. Reaching these incredible milestones is impressive at any time. But it’s especially…

By McKinnon Shisko, Indian River Consulting Group In April 2019, a large national consulting firm surveyed 1,000 executives of large firms (classified as having 500+ employees) with the intent of discovering key points about their ability to leverage data in making business decisions. Their study found that 37% of respondents considered their companies to be highly mature on the Insight-Driven Maturity Scale while 63% of respondents were “aware of analytics but lack infrastructure, are still working in silos, or are expanding ad hoc analytics capabilities beyond silos.” Interestingly, “among the 37% of companies in the survey with the strongest analytics cultures, 48%…

In late 2021, the American Welding Society launched a new online course called “Solution Selling for Welding.” As the world of welding, manufacturing, and fabrication continues to evolve and become more competitive, the success of any organization often hinges on the strength of its salesforce. The Solution Selling for Welding Course was designed to help develop highly knowledgeable and effective sales personnel. Created in tandem with welding industry experts with decades of sales and engineering experience, this course focuses on two key aspects: foundational welding concepts and the “solution selling” methodology. Collectively, this provides welding salespeople with a strong, well-rounded…

Former GAWDA Presidents Share Advice on Getting the Most out of Convention and SMC Networking is one of the greatest benefits of being a GAWDA member. And the two national meetings each year provide the best opportunity to combine networking and education. However, attending these national meetings means time away from your business. It means paying for hotels and flights. 2021 GAWDA President Abydee Butler Moore stressed the importance of bringing real take-home value home from each meeting that would justify the time and money invested in the trip. We had the opportunity to speak with five former GAWDA Presidents…

As part of its continued push to help GAWDA members get the most out of their membership dues in the association and stay on the front lines of emerging industry trends and hot-button issues, GAWDA has several volunteer committees devoted to specific areas of the industry. The volunteer committees include: Government Affairs, Human Resources, Industry Partnering, Insurance Trustees, Leadership Development, Member Services, Safety, Women of Gases and Welding, and Young Professionals. This new feature in Welding & Gases Today will update readers on the latest news and events from each committee. We thank all the committee chairs for their help…

Ask Your Board is a new feature that will run in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Quarter issues of Welding & Gases Today. The purpose of Ask Your Board is to ask common business questions that all GAWDA members might be dealing with and to see how GAWDA’s Board of Directors are dealing with these issues within their own companies. To submit a question for GAWDA’s Board Members to consider, please email [email protected] THE QUESTION How has your communication, both internal and external, evolved over the past year? Are there any changes that were made that you anticipate continuing long-term?…