MSCI Introduces Elements in Action Industry Video at 2009 Annual Meeting in Phoenix
May 04, 2009
MSCI Introduces Elements in Action Industry Video at 2009 Annual Meeting in Phoenix
PHOENIX, Arizona, May 4, 2009 – Elements in Action, a high-definition video that explains and promotes the metals service center industry and its significant, but largely unrecognized, role in the North American economy, premiered today at the Metals Service Center Institute’s Centennial Annual Meeting here.
Produced for MSCI by Maday Productions of Chicago, the video demonstrates how the men and women of the metals industry convert raw materials into steel, aluminum, and stainless steel in a supply chain that has impact on almost every industry and the way we live.
“Elements in Action demonstrates the many, many ways that our industry is interwoven into our economy and experience as North Americans,” said M. Robert Weidner, III, president and CEO of MSCI. “We wanted this video, one of our most important projects for our Centennial, to be usable by our members, recruiters, schools and others to show what we do, how we do it and why it matters.”
The video can be customized by member companies to include their own company-specific content, or it can be used as is to show the industry’s role. The Maday team spent five months writing, researching, and touring metals service centers before shooting for 10 days in service centers and elsewhere, with six weeks of post production and creation of motion graphics.
“Our team was captivated by the powerful yet precise path that metals travel from creation to their final form the products that we use every day,” said Richard Sims, Maday’s producer. “It was a unique experience to be permitted into this usually unseen world. We are extremely proud to have been a part of it, and we thank the many hard working people in the metals industry who helped us bring this amazing story to life.”
“In producing this video and our other Centennial projects, we were of course aware of the economic environment and the fact that this is a period of great challenge and hardship for many people and companies in the metals industry,” Weidner said. “By the same token, however, the Centennial is a reminder to us all of just how durable and innovative our industry has been, decade-in and decade-out. The privilege and responsibility of representing our trade association on its 100th birthday fell to us this year, and it is important for us to commemorate our industry’s rich heritage and use that heritage to build for tomorrow.”
The MSCI Centennial commemoration and projects in it were overseen by Ann D’Orazio, the institute’s vice president, marketing and strategic growth; by Weidner, and by a Centennial Advisory Committee chaired by two former MSCI chairmen: Michael Petersen, president of Petersen Aluminum, and Donald R. McNeeley, president and COO of Chicago Tube & Iron. The video kicked off today’s activities at the annual meeting, which runs through tomorrow at the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa.
Founded in 1909, the Metals Service Center Institute has more than 400 members operating from about 1,200 locations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and elsewhere in the world. Together, MSCI members constitute the largest single group of metals purchasers in North America, amounting each year to more than 55 million tons of steel, aluminum, and other metals, with about 300,000 manufacturers and fabricators as customers. MSCI’s membership also includes almost all ferrous and non-ferrous industrial metals producers in North America. Metals service centers inventory and distribute metals and provide first-stage fabrication services.
Contacts:
Jon Kalkwarf, MSCI vice president and CFO, 847-485-3007 or 773-835-6108
Ann D’Orazio, MSCI vice president, marketing and strategic growth, 847-485-3019 or 219-614-3863.