FNA 2022

The 2022 Furnaces North America event in Indianapolis was an unforgettable experience! Karen Gantzer, senior editor and associate publisher of Heat Treat Today, shares about the FNA show with the Heat Treat Today team. 

This article first appeared in Heat Treat Today's November 2022 vacuum print edition. Feel free to contact Karen Gantzer at karen@heattreattoday.com if you have a question, comment, or any editorial contribution you’d like to submit.

Well, the Heat Treat Today team is still riding high from our time at Furnaces North America a few weeks ago in Indianapolis. If you’ve had the opportunity to meet, talk, or work with any of us, you know how passionate we are about the industry, our work in helping you become better informed, and most importantly all of you! We truly love people and building relationships.

Being with many of you and connecting in person is energizing for us! It sure was a full week, but we came home with overflowing emotional tanks because we not only experienced FNA as a team together, but we were also able to have meaningful conversations with you! So, I thought it would be fun for you to hear special FNA highlights from several of the Heat Treat Today team.

Bethany Leone, our managing editor shared: “Breaking bread with 40 Under 40 people in the concessions, sharing chocolate with attendees in the booth, and clinking glasses with the Heat Treat Today  family in the evening. It is the joining together and hearing the humanity of so many special people in our lives, whom I only email behind Calibri Light Font Type size 11. “FNA was more. More fun, more lively, more meaningful than I thought. As someone who enjoys anonymity, it was a surprising joy to meet more people face-to-face and strategize ways that the editorial team could help readers and authors. The work to be done beneath my feet was more than I imagined, so much so that I couldn’t leave our booth the first day, save for lunch! Those ‘more’ memories continue to flood my mind, even as I type ‘I’m so sorry I missed you’ to the many people I didn’t get to meet.”

A common theme amongst our team was walking the floor and visiting with you. Lauren Porter, production manager and first-time attendee said: “For me, the highlight of FNA was walking around the exhibit hall on Tuesday morning feeling the room fill with energy! Seeing so many people I had met — but never face to face — was really fun.”

This year we gave away Heat Treat Kids shirts. They were a hit with both attendees and staff Alyssa Bootsma, social media editor/copy editor, expressed her favorite memories: “I LOVED handing out the Heat Treat Kids T-shirts. It brought so much joy to those parents and relatives. I also loved having lunch with some of the 40 Under 40 honorees. We had fun conversations, and it was great to meet them. Of course, I absolutely loved being with the Heat Treat Today team. You all are such a joy to be around. It was also great to be able to meet people on the show floor or catch up with people we met last year at the Heat Treat Show.”

The first lady of Heat Treat Today, Mary Glenn, said: “I loved having everyone together and hearing how our magazines are helping businesses grow!”

Administrator Ellen Porter shared: “Working with our Team, in person, is such a great feeling of community. That feeling only builds when you get to go to a show and see all the smiling faces of the people we email with regularly, in the greater Heat Treat World. It was great!”

Closing our reflections is our publisher and founder Doug Glenn whose sentiments are shared by us all: “Having (almost) the entire team in one place at one time was really fulfilling and enjoyable. Being a remote company, the opportunities we have for face-to-face interactions are very limited. The time at FNA was especially enjoyable because not only were we together, but we also shared a common mission: get to know our customers and prospects so that we can be better informed about how to help them. The dinner we had together (with a couple of spouses and two honored guests) was also a wonderful time.

“Another major highlight is the satisfaction of seeing the show so successful since this was the first time that Heat Treat Today was the official media sponsor. It seems that our audience showed up and was quite engaged. Getting to meet a handful of our 40 Under 40 honorees was also a super memory for me.”

Until the next time; thanks for the memories!

Main Photo Caption: Heat Treat Today Team: (back row): Michelle Ritenour, Ellen Porter, Sarah Maffet, Bethany Leone, Lauren Porter, Alyssa Bootsma; (Front row): Karen Gantzer, Doug Glenn, Mary Glenn