Austin Vibes

One-of-a-kind Texas setting adds magic to the 25th Elevator U Conference.

by Kaija Wilkinson

Within walking distance of the Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bat Bridge over Lady Bird Lake, the circa 1982 Hyatt Regency Austin — a 16-story structure noted for its Schindler glass elevators overlooking a soaring atrium — proved a magical setting for the 25th Elevator U Conference on June 16-19. The approximately 160 attendees to this year’s conference could see each other and yell greetings across the atrium, a small part of what set this year’s event apart from others. Four days packed full of education sessions (some for continuing education credit), intense networking, delicious gourmet food, bottomless drinks, a lively vendor tradeshow and even a professional magician and a sword swallower — all in a beautiful, one-of-a-kind setting — made the conference’s silver anniversary one that will be remembered for years to come.

The event kicked off under sunny skies and warm temperatures at the Riverside Golf Course for the traditional golf outing in the shadow of bustling downtown Austin. From the green, 66 golfers could see a skyline peppered with construction cranes, including those at the 74-story supertall Waterline, a mixed-use tower served by Otis elevators that will become the tallest building in the state of Texas upon completion in late 2026. From your author’s window at the Hyatt, she could see the vacant former Austin-American Statesman newspaper building sitting silently in the foreground of the growing skyline, emphasizing a city that is quickly evolving, and evolving upward. All the construction cranes, observed Elevator U Founding Director Glenn Duncan of Parts Specialists Inc., are the sign of a strong construction market.

MONDAY, JUNE 16

After the golf outing, Elevator U Board of Directors (BoD) gathered for dinner in a private dining room at the Hyatt, where they discussed association finances (which are in good shape), taxes, website issues, organizational structure and an agreement to share audio-visual equipment with the International Association of Elevator Consultants.

Since your author doesn’t golf, she took the day to explore the hotel, which is undergoing a multi-million dollar renovation. Noise like hammering and drilling primarily took place during the day, and the hotel graciously offered “tranquility kits” — white noise machines, ear plugs, fans and eye masks — upon request. The glass of the atrium elevators is being replaced, so they were papered over, but it was still amazing to look down into the atrium and see all the activity below, not to mention the height. Your author asked the concierge if anyone had ever dropped anything into the atrium and learned that they had: a pair of expensive sunglasses and child’s stuffed animal that happened to land on the top of one of the elevators. “The Schindler technician who retrieved it was a hero in that child’s eyes,” she said.

For the Vendor-Mercials, Jeremy Corey of CED Elevator & Electrical gave a deadpan “performance” that centered around the technology that goes into CED’s array of elevator parts, followed by Erin Lukowicz and Evan Knapp of RATH by
Avire who presented a hilarious mime act about what it feels
like to be trapped in an elevator.

TUESDAY, JUNE 17

Attendees gathered in the Hyatt’s 14,136-f^t2 Zilker IV ballroom for a continental breakfast and a welcome from Darren Hale, who retired from the U.S. Navy and is now executive director of Facilities Services at the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin). Hale described the university facilities that consist of more than 400 buildings and 25 million ft² served by hundreds of pieces of vertical-transportation (VT) equipment. He talked about the high-end fault detection system Facilities Services uses to prevent shutdowns and ensure accessibility. UT Austin is undergoing a lot of new construction, including a new, approximately 25-story teaching hospital that will need “a lot of elevators.” The school is also modernizing its main, 114-year-old building and its VT system that includes an amazing 1943 Otis cage elevator that still works. The campus currently has 170 hydraulic elevators, 213 geared traction elevators, 18 gearless elevators and 45 wheelchair lifts, along with 85 escalators, the majority of which are in the Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Four buildings are equipped with high-speed gearless cars. These units travel 500 ft/min and are designed to shuttle hundreds of people between floors. All are equipped with microprocessor controls. These five units answer more than 6,000 daily calls and travel a distance of roughly 270 mi. a day.

The day’s educational sessions were:

• “Elevator Industry Field Employees’ Safety Handbook” — National Elevator Industry, Inc. Safety and Workforce Development Director Dot Mynahan
• “Using Oil Analysis to Extend the Life of a Hydro System” — Gorman Co. Inc. Director of Operations Michael Johnson
• “Elevator Emergency Multimedia Communications” — Wurtec Senior Sales and Development Specialist Mark Yako
• “Long-Term Planning for Elevators and Escalators” — ATIS Elevator Consultant Natalie Nordstrom
• “Making the Best Out of a Bad Situation” — ATIS Elevator Consultants Eric Tragash and Robert Schram

The day also included a cracker barrel session on multimedia emergency elevator communication and wrapped up with a dinner at the Hyatt that included a magician, sword swallower and roving caricature artist. During the magic portion of the show, retired VT professional and Elevator U BoD member Steve Pydynowski got pulled onstage to assist in a trick that involved stapling a piece of paper to the magician’s head. “I’m not sure how he did it, but it looked and felt real!” Pydynowski said. “I’m just glad they waited until after dinner.” The sword the female performer repeatedly swallowed glowed bright red, so there was little question  that part of the act was real.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18

The always-popular Vendor-Mercials followed a buffet breakfast, nominations and voting. This year’s officers are President James Dowell of University of Virginia (UVA), who takes the reins from outcoming president and Chairman of the Board Eddie Morris, also of UVA. The rest of the BoD consists of Vice President Matthew Pike, Pydnowski, Treasurer Brad Haldeman, Secretary Daren Lehman and Directors David Smith of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Daniel Swett of Swett & Associates, Tom Sybert of C.J. Anderson & Co., Founding Director Duncan of PSI and outgoing Chairman of the board Martin Culp of the University of Maryland.

For the Vendor-Mercials, Jeremy Corey of CED Elevator & Electrical gave a deadpan “performance” that centered around the technology that goes into CED’s array of elevator parts, followed by Erin Lukowicz and Evan Knapp of RATH by Avire who presented a hilarious mime act based on a script written by Colin Lempert about what it feels like to be trapped in an elevator and how RATH can help.

The vendor expo opened during lunch, giving attendees a chance to browse exhibitors’ latest offerings and pick up some swag. The day’s education sessions were:

• “State of the Elevator Industry” — Elevator World, Inc. President T. Bruce MacKinnon
• “Remote Monitoring” — Vantage Vice President of Sales Daniel Baltzegar
• “Overlooked Backbone of Campus” — Turf Elevate founder and Managing Partner Lisa Diaz

The vendor expo reopened at 6 p.m., with servers carrying around heavy hors d’ouevres such as Wagyu sliders, pork belly and coconut chicken and open bars keeping the drinks flowing. Elevator Escalator Safety Foundation (EESF) Executive Director Amber Catlin-Kolodziej enlisted help from the crowd to hype their silent auction offerings, resulting in a flurry of enthusiastic bidding, happy winners and more than anticipated raised for the Foundation. Vendors pulled out all the stops for the silent auction to benefit EESF, with hot items such as a football signed by former player and UT Austin football coach Stephen Sarkisian, a vintage-style turntable, Bluetooth speakers and fancy Yeti coolers (the Yeti flagship store is only steps away from the Hyatt). “We planned to raise US$4,000 and ended up raising US$5,000!” Catlin-Kolodziej said. “It was a very successful night!”

THURSDAY, JUNE 19

Following breakfast and a membership meeting, the day’s education sessions were:

• “Emergency Operation, Signaling Device Compliance and 8.14 Cybersecurity” — Lukowicz
• “Modular Elevator Systems” — Resolute Elevator LLC president Jonathan Fox
• “Maintenance of Elevators, Escalators & Vandalism” — VDA, Inc. Regional Sales Manager Steve Broom
• “Code-Compliant Maintenance Program” — Elevator Safety Solutions, LLC head and founder John Koshak and Daren Lehman of The Ohio State University

The event formally closed at 3 p.m., with Dowell stating: “This year’s Elevator U Conference was a tremendous success. Organizing a four-day event takes a great deal of eort and coordination throughout the year, but seeing it all come together makes it more than worth it. A heartfelt thank you goes out to all our vendors and presenters. Their contributions were essential to making this event so impactful. We’ve received overwhelmingly positive feedback from the attendees, which is a true testament to everyone’s hard work.”