Tuesday Talk: Appreciating skilled trades and teachers on GWCCA campus
Tuesday Talk rounds up the latest Georgia World Congress Center Authority (GWCCA) news you might have missed and also points forward to upcoming events on our campus.
Tomorrow (Wednesday, May 1) is the inaugural National Skilled Trades Day, established to celebrate skilled trades workers and to also encourage more people to pursue trade schools and trade jobs.
Skilled trades, from electricians to plumbers to carpenters to HVAC techs to painters, comprise an important aspect of the Georgia World Congress Center Authority (GWCCA) workforce, keeping our 220-plus-acre downtown Atlanta campus humming 24-7.
“Without them, the place wouldn’t function,” said Bryan Huggett, GWCCA Director of Facility Management. “From preventive maintenance to regular maintenance to emergency repairs, we’re fortunate to have them.”
According to job search website Monster.com, “skilled trades careers are those labor jobs which require specific training, such as a carpenter, a tile setter or an electrician. Much of the labor involved with skilled trades jobs are manual work and can be physically demanding.”
Huggett said the GWCCA crew of trades workers perform specific disciplines at a very high level, and for instance, one of our in-house painters can accomplish more with a single brush stroke than an average person could with a half-dozen strokes.
“These guys are very skilled,” said Huggett. “And they do it without blinking.”
National Skilled Trades Day was founded by Ohio-based City Machine Technologies, Inc., which worked with National Day Calendar to officially register and proclaim that that observation will be held annually on the first Wednesday of May.
Meanwhile, in the not-too-distant future, the Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC) will host SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference (NLSC), a week-long convention for technical education students and instructors. “SkillsUSA is a partnership of students, teachers
TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEKEND
And speaking of underappreciated workers, the Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame (CFHOF), located on the GWCCA campus, is offering free admission for teachers this weekend.
The CFHOF’s Teacher Appreciation Weekend happens Saturday (May 4) and Sunday (May 5) featuring free entry for teachers, and 20 percent discount on tickets for guests that tag along with a teacher. Valid teachers’ ID required.
For more information, go to: www.cfbhall.com.
THE RETURN OF TATA
The man who brought Atlanta its first major pro sports title in 23 years will return to the sidelines at Mercedes-Benz Stadium (MBS).
But coaching legend Gerardo “Tata” Martino isn’t coming back to manage the Atlanta United, rather he’s leading his new squad, the Mexican National Team in an international matchup against Venezuela on June 5 at MBS.
Martino, who guided the United in its first two years of existence, including capturing the Major League Soccer (MLS) Cup championship on Dec. 8,
Tickets for the June 5 game are on sale now via Ticketmaster.
THIRD QUARTER ECONOMIC IMPACT
The third quarter (Jan.-March) results from the GWCCA’s current fiscal year are in and our downtown Atlanta campus hosted 36 events, bringing in 784,713 guests, generating an estimated economic impact of $428,595,506 for the city and state. These figures do not include Super Bowl LIII and the Big Game’s ancillary events hosted on campus.
THIS WEEK ON CAMPUS
CastExpo 2019 and Metalcasting Congress came to a close to today (April 30) with the American Foundry Society’s President’s Luncheon and Annual Business Meeting in the GWCC’s Building A. Metalcasters, suppliers and casting buyers from around the globe came to the event, representing 32 countries, from Albania to the United Kingdom.
The AWS (Amazon Web Services) Summit Atlanta, a one-day free event “designed to bring together the cloud computing community to connect, collaborate,” returns to the GWCC on Thursday (May 2). The event features keynote speaker Sandy Carter, Vice President of Enterprise Workloads.
VeloCity, a cycling event that benefits Grady Hospital, returns for a second year to the GWCCA campus on Saturday (May 4), but this year’s race ends at the Home Depot Backyard instead of International Plaza. Like last year’s inaugural event, the four-tiered race/ride has routes of varying length, from approximately six miles to 100 miles, and begins on the field/turf at Mercedes-Benz Stadium (MBS). The VeloCity Finish Line Festival is set for 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at the Home Depot Back Yard next to MBS, featuring live entertainment, an expo, kids’ zone, food, and beverages.
