Get the confetti – We're celebrating the top content of 2024!

By Emma Peterson. 

From coating demos to industry insights, let’s look at the top content of the year. 

With 2024 coming to a close, some people might be considering it a perfect time to paint the town. Here at CoatingsCoffeeShop™ (CCS), we’d rather coat the town (or at least some of the roofing systems in the town!). This last year has been a big one for the youngest site in The Coffee Shops’ family. We celebrated the site’s first birthday in July, and we are so thankful for all the support we have received.  

Our goal is always to create a space for the industry to meet and find one-of-a-kind educational experiences. We hope you have found that here this year, because we have certainly been learning more than we can fit into our brains! To help us remember all that has happened in the last 12 months, we compiled a list of the top content of the year.  

Top articles 

Ponding water? No problem at all! by Dani Sheehan 

To kick off our top content list, we have our top article written by Coffee Shop crew member Dani Sheehan! This article focuses on an episode of CoatingsCast where Heidi J. Ellsworth and Jan Bagnall of APOC talk about their commercial roofing product designed to solve ponding water problems — RoofSlope. This is just one of the many amazing articles our editorial team put out this year, so make sure to check them all out in the newsroom! 

Stand out from the competition by expanding your scope by Greg Hlavaty 

Every year we run what is called our Coatings Influencer program, which brings experts and professionals from all parts of the industry together to answer pressing questions and prompts about the coatings world. This year we have asked them about everything from quality control to training tips for managers. The top article from this group comes from Greg Hlavaty, the president of Western Colloid. He shared some thoughts with our readers about how you can find business success by thinking outside the box.  

Top webinars/podcasts 

Thoughts from a 30-year Coatings Veteran 

Over on the multimedia side of things, our crew has been busy producing countless podcasts and webinars for our CoatingsCast and CoatingsTalk series. This year, our top CoatingsCast is a conversation between Karen Edwards and Brady Kolden from Polyglass. In the episode, the duo spoke about the trends and concerns of the industry through Brady’s perspective formed over 30-years of experience.  

Coatings 101 

In our CoatingsTalk series, which is a part of our Read Listen Watch (RLW)® initiative, we did everything from discussing topics like how restoration provides a path to roofing longevity to getting on top of a roof for the first live CoatingsTalk episode to see restoration in action. Our top episode was also our most recent, which featured Gaco Senior Product Manager Ed Klonowski. In it, he and Heidi J. Ellsworth cover the basics of roof coatings, from maintenance to liquid applied systems and everything between.  

Top YouTube videos 

APOC's Silicone Coating System | Live Demo From WRE! 

We also got the chance to attend a variety of fun trade shows and expos this last year. We love these opportunities to connect with industry friends, new and old, in person! Our top YouTube video is actually from one of these incredible shows, the 2024 Western Roofing Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada. In this video, our crew stopped by booth #505 to chat with our friends at APOC. Not only did we get to hear all about their silicone coating systems, but we also got an incredible, live demo! 

Product demo playlist 

In a similar vein, our top playlist of the year was also all about product demonstrations! Featuring videos and presenters from APOC and KARNAK, these demos are a great opportunity to learn about their high-quality products and see them in action. Experiences like these are one of the reasons we love attending trade shows and we are already excited for the 2025 season to begin! 

Top social media posts 

Instagram post with Jeff Blank 

Another one of our favorite parts of our jobs at The Coffee Shops is getting to learn from the industry experts and professionals that come to visit us. In our top Instagram post of the year, Megan Ellsworth sits down with Jeff Blank to learn about vertical integration in the roofing industry. Jeff has worked with Simon Roofing for almost three decades now and is heavily involved in industry organizations such as the Cool Roofs Rating Council (CRRC) and the Roof Coatings Manufacturers Association (RCMA). 

TikTok video from the General Coatings booth at IRE 2024! 

We also got to learn from Will Lorenz and the General Coatings team! In our top TikTok of the year, The Coffee Shops crew stops by their booth at the 2024 International Roofing Expo (IRE) to talk to them about everything spray foam roofing — from installation and applications to benefits like energy efficiency.  

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