Lesson Plan

  At one small-town newspaper where I toiled in my youth, it was Bowlers’ Corner, chronicling each and every one of the 60 bowling-league matches of the previous week. At a regional business magazine, I edited a monthly list of every business incorporation for a four-state area the size of France and one Benelux country of your choice.
  At Stone Business, there’s one section that drives nearly everyone nuts: Calendar.
  Not that this is its obituary, as you’ve probably read in your local newspaper when it cut all the stock listings or the only guy you agreed with on the op-ed page. Calendar is part of my balliwick and it’s not leaving anytime soon, even if the proofreader groans every time it hits the desk.
  With apologies to Jim Mackay and Roone Arledge, I keep scanning the globe to bring you the constant variety in events for the stone trade. We’re involved in one of the true global businesses, and something about stone happens in every continent except Antarctica. (Polar Porphyry 2008 still needs to find a hall and a headquarters hotel.)
  In the past year, the copy for Calendar expanded beyond what we could handle. Instead of giving a year-long look at what’s happening, the listings now barely cover the next few months.
  Nearly everyone involved in the stone industry would blame the huge amount of new trade shows for this growth. And they’d be wrong by half or better; the big boom is in education.
  Earlier in the decade, I’d barely glean a few workshops here and there, plus the annual lineup of the National Training Center for Stone and Masonry Trades. Now, there are seminars and hands-on training throughout the United States from a variety of sources on the whole spectrum of the business, from prep to fabrication to installation.
  The explosion in education opportunities in Calendar doesn’t even cover the full impact. As more trade shows enter the market, the events routinely offer sessions on fabrication, design and marketing. A few opportunities are now popping up on the Web for the stay-at-the-shop crowd.
  A few years ago, readers would contact me and complain that stone seemed to be a pretty closed-mouthed trade when it came to learning any of its ins-and-outs. Not any more.
  Instead, there’s education that seems to be growing exponentially. And it’s time to pose the question: Is there too much?
  Yes, it sounds like heresy. How can there be too many seminars or workshops? How can you be against more chances to learn? How can you say that education is a bad thing?
  I’m not trying to turn back knowledge. I learn something new every day here; if I didn’t, I’d be the first one out the door looking for a new challenge. Education is good ….
  … as long as it’s good education. It’s important to have quality as well as quantity with learning opportunities in stone. Whether both are being delivered right now is still a big unknown.
  This is no knock against the people offering this new rush of education. I’ve met most of those teaching the ever-lengthening list of sessions, and they’re a knowledgeable bunch. Several of them have provided valuable answers on questions arising from articles and reader inquiries, and I trust their expertise.
  The dilemma is in the delivery. Hopefully, first-rate instructors won’t get stretched too thin as they crisscross the country and start recognizing airline flight attendant by sight.
  And, as more education keeps popping up, there are bound to be bad days from good people, and bad sessions by those who shouldn’t be teaching anything. A sour experience is more than a waste of time; it’s the possibility of learning the wrong thing and paying some high real-life interest with blown jobs and mad customers.
  There’s no good seal of approval with education, either. I’ve seen some people do amazing sessions literally from the back of a truck in some trades, and others empty a room at a trade show by offering nothing of real value.
  So how can anyone get some idea of whether any of the education offered in stone is really worth it? It’s like anything else in learning: ask.
  Find out the backgrounds of instructors. If they’ve published articles in trade magazines, read them to get a sense of what they know. 
 Above all, ask for references; get the names of people who’ve attended previous sessions, and ask them about what they learned. See if the instruction is right for your level of skills and expertise.
  I also take the optimist’s view in that no session is a total write-off; one nugget of something new can turn into a nice bit of profit in the shop or a sales call. It may take plenty of digging to find the acorn, but it’s often found by an open mind.
  Remember that every student – including you – comes to a session with a wealth of information and experiences. You may learn something from the person next to you that’s totally unrelated to what’s being taught, but it’s knowledge you wouldn’t have otherwise.
  Make sure you take a look at what’s going on back in the Calendar section. It may be the last thing in Stone Business, but there are plenty of good opportunities to build your skills and move your business ahead.
  Emerson Schwartzkopf can be reached at emerson@stonebusiness.net.