Thursday, December 07, 2006

Work Perks

. Thursday, December 07, 2006

On Monday and Tuesday (Dec 11 - 12), I will be taking an all-expenses paid trip to {drum roll, please} Wausau, Wisconsin. "What's there?!?!" you ask? Well, it's the home of the Greenheck company. Greenheck is a manufacturer of fans, dampers, louvers, and small energy recovery units. It's not uncommon for local manufacturer representatives to take a small group of engineers on a factory tour. Me and another guy from Forest Animals A/E are going this year.

The purpose of these trips (besides being a form of legal bribary) is to learn more about the products, what the best applications of those products are, and maybe get a glimpse of new products coming down the road. The manufacturer benefits because they ask what we like to see in a product and take our input into account when developing new products. It's great for the rep too. Part of how he gets paid has to do with if the products he represents are specified on a project. Certainly, he earns a "commission" if the product he represents is purchased by the contractor. But he also earns money if his product is the "basis of design" (because that's who the contractor uses many times) and he also earns money if he is listed as "an acceptable manufacturer". If I don't list a manufacturer as "acceptable" then their product can't be used on my project.

I've been to the Fulton Boiler plant in Pulaski, NY. Took a limo from Rochester. Got taken out to lunch at a nice restaurant and got a nice Fulton wind breaker jacket. About a year ago, I went to the Aerco Boiler plant in New Jersey (a competitor of Fulton). Flew up first thing in the morning, did the tour bit, had dinner and MANY drinks at the airport waiting for our flight home. This will be first overnight trip of this type so the entertainment options will be more varied. I'll give a full report when I get back.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cool! Have fun :)

-gwen

Anonymous said...

Have a safe trip.

We almost moved to WI just before we moved here instead. My husband had a job opp. in the Upper Peninsula that we were considering until we looked at a map and noticed there was very little in the way of roads! We didn't like that one bit! :-o

Boo said...

Yoopers live in Michigan. Wisconsin is the next state over.

Anonymous said...

Yep, but they are really close to each other.

http://www.exploringthenorth.com/wis/wis.html

It was MI that we were thinking of moving too, but still, the two states are so close it almost doesn't matter. Kind of like NC and VA (at least my part of it).

Anonymous said...

Pulaski, NY has a nice restaurant?

Boo said...

It was right across the street if I remember right. It was no 5-star restaurant by any stretch of the imagination but it was a nice little place with good food.

Mohawk Chieftain said...

Don't forget to bring yer lovely family some of those fancy fans, louvers, dampers, etc.; they'll love you for it.

Oh! a cheesehead for little BOO will move you to the top of his list... in front of Santa Claus, too!