Diving into Scrap Expo 2025 with Jim Keefe

In this week’s episode, I chat to Jim Keefe, Executive Vice President of GIE Media and the driving force behind Scrap Expo - one of the most operator-friendly events in the metal recycling industry.

Jim shares his 30+ year journey in the business, how he stumbled into the scrap world, and how Scrap Expo was born out of a clear need. Hands-on demos and direct connection for scrappies of all sizes.

From running a publishing house to building one of the most action-packed events in the space, Jim’s story is a testament to building with intent and solving real problems.

In this episode, we talk about:

👉 Why Scrap Expo attracts ops teams and CEOs alike
👉 How live demos are turning lookers into buyers
👉 Reaching recyclers outside the big associations
👉 Why 2025 is Scrap Expo’s biggest year yet
👉 And much more!

Listen to the full episode, wherever you stream your podcasts.

Born Scrappy.

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WHO IS STU KAGAN ANYWAYS?
26 years in the metal recycling game and still learning and growing...

I learnt from the best and worked my way up from yard labourer to Executive Director of Trading and Operations for the largest metal recycler in sub-Saharan Africa. Responsible for 4,500 employees, 85 sites, and the overall profitability of a multi-billion dollar operation.

I brought my breadth and depth of knowledge to bear and co-founded the fastest growing, most-loved, and most awarded metal recycling company in New Zealand. No small feat in a country where people are outnumbered 4:1 by sheep (spoiler alert: sheep don’t produce much metal waste).

I thought it was time that tech worked for our industry, so I took all of my experience as an operator and trader and leveraged that to build THE killer scrap app, Buddy. That’s right - built for scrappies, by scrappies.

Father of two crazy-awesome boys. Husband to Lisa. Under 9 rugby coach. YPO member. Lifelong learner. Mentee. Mentor. Chief dog walker. Committed Stoic. Undefeated dance-off champion.

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Transcript

0:00

Hi, I'm Stu Kagan and welcome to Born Scrappy, the podcast for scrap metal exporters and traders. Join me in conversation with some of the most experienced traders and operators that have helped shape this incredible industry. In this week's episode, I'm chatting with Jim Keefe, the Executive Vice President of GIE Media, the team that brings us to recycling today and the driving force behind Scrap Expo. Jim shares his 30 year journey in the business, how he stumbled into the scrap world, and how Scrap Expo was born out of a clear need from running a publishing house to building one of the most action packed events in the space. Jim's story is a testament to building with intent and solving real problems. In this episode, we talk about why scrap expo attracts operators and traders, how live demos are turning lookers into buyers, expanding the recycling network. Why 2025 is scrap expo's, biggest year yet, and so much more. So let's jump into it with Jim, but first intro. Hi, Jim. How are you? Great. How are you today, Steve? Good to be with you. Yeah, it's, it's awesome to have you, Jim Keefe. I'm, uh, I'm excited for this one because, uh. You usually on the other side interviewing people and finding out everybody else's live stories. So we're gonna get to chat to you a little bit. So, uh, yeah. How have things been, Jim? Very good. It's been, it's a challenging year, I think, for all of us in the trade, but we're holding up and it's been good. It's been good. We're a great industry. What a great industry and, uh, you know, essential and doing amazing things and surrounded by amazing people. I, I rarely, you know, um, it's an interesting way to start this episode off, but we're gonna go there. You know, when I moved to America, um, the reason why I moved was'cause I was commuting. To the US from New Zealand, and obviously I'd spent most of my life in South Africa. I have never, I remember that. I had never experience. Yeah. And I'd never experienced a community like I have in the US around our industry. It's not like this anywhere else that I've seen in other countries. Um, even visiting other countries, going to association meetings in other countries, the US has something special. Everybody is super welcoming. Everybody wants everybody else to be successful. And it's not like in a, of course we compete and of course everybody's kind of like wanting to do the best for themselves and their stakeholders and everybody, but at the same time, you really can't pick up a phone at any time and reach out to somebody and somebody out there will help you. Yeah. It's, I think that's very true of the industry. Somebody told me a long time ago, it gets into your blood and, you know, once, once it's into your blood, you, you can't get out. So, um, that's, I mean, that's exactly it. I, I tell everybody who joined our industry, um, over the years and joined my company, it was always the exact same thing. Once it's in your blood, you're done for, like, you can try leave. That's right. And you might be gone for a month or two, but you'll come back. Come back. It's like the Godfather, you know, you Yeah. Try to get out and they pull you back in. You can, you can never leave. Exactly right. Jim, before we jump into, you know, what our main topic is gonna be, which is scrap expo, where it comes from, what it's all about, what's exciting about this year? You know,'cause we're a few months out, um, and you put this on. Before we go in there, just give us a bit of background about Jim. Like how did you get into this industry? Were you born and going like, I want to be in this metal recycling industry, or did it land on you? Talk us through how this happened. Well, it, it's, so. I think like so many people, the way I ended up in the industry was almost by default, right? So our, um, parent company is GIE Media, and I joined GIE uh, a little over 30 years ago, almost, almost 35 years now. And at that time I thought I'd be here three to five years. You know, we at that time were a small. Publishing house and had three magazines. Recycling today was one of them. Today we've grown to one of the largest privately held media companies in North America, and we publish in about 20 different vertical markets. But I spend the majority of my life, uh, around the recycling industry. And so, um. It's just become part of what you love to do. I have so many friends in the business and now my son's in the industry, and so that's, that's a wonderful thing as well. Yeah, good old Cameron. Um, I see him at all the events I go to. We were talking about it just offline beforehand. He's probably the hungriest youngster I see out there. Um, other than maybe Jean Paul who's just joined the buddy team. But, uh, the two of them, you know, I, I compared Jean Paul. In fact, when I first met him, I said, you remind me of, uh, younger Cameron Keith. Um, yeah, that's funny. Awesome guy. Really, really hungry out there. And it's great to have the young blood. Coming into the industry now you do a lot of other media. What are some examples of that? Do you do construction, you do waste, you know, what else are you guys involved in specifically? So we, so if you look at our, um, what we call our waste and recycling business, we publish recycling today, waste today. And construction and demolition recycling. But as a business, we're very diversified. We're in the aerospace manufacturing sector, medical equipment, manufacturing. We are in the structural pest control business. We're in, um, golf course management. We're in. Ornamental horticulture, nursery, greenhouse garden centers. So we've got a, a, a pretty diversified business and we, uh, produce a lot of events across our portfolio as well as, uh, digital media like, like podcasts and, uh, so forth. So today we're, we're a fairly diversified business, um, but our recycling business really started when we, in the mid eighties. Acquired recycling Today, fiber Market News, and what was then called the Paper Stock Directory. And our business has grown from that. And today we publish Recycling Today, plastics Recycling. We publish, uh, as I mentioned, waste today. And, and, um, construction. And demolition recycling, as well as our, uh, scrap recycling supplement to recycling today. So, I mean, how long has, how long has Scrap Expo been going? Is this Its fourth year or third year? This will be our fourth year for scrap expo. Fourth year? Yes. And, and it's quite interesting'cause you came on the scene, but straight away it was like you knew what you were doing. And I guess that's because this isn't your first rodeo, right? I mean, you put on a whole lot of other events. So you're hosting the construction event, is that right? Well, we launched our first event in the recycling space 25 years ago, almost 26 years ago now, which was originally the Paper Recycling Conference. It is now the Paper and Plastics Recycling Conference, and we host that event in Chicago, downtown Chicago every year. And last year I think we had. I don't know, a little over a thousand people from 23 countries attending that event. So, so that's a large event. Very different from Scrap expo, but a wonderful event for us and for the industry. Let's talk Scrap expo. So what made you decide you wanted to do Scrap Expo? Where did you see the opportunity to have another event? People feel that there's a lot of REMA events everybody's attending, but Scrap Expo kind of, um, cut through the noise. Put itself out there and now it's attracting a lot of attention and getting a lot of people to attend. Where did you see the opportunity? Why did you think it was necessary to do it? Listen, we think those regional REMA events are very important, especially on a regional basis where they, um, really serve a great need for the local networking and local legislative and regulatory activity and so forth. And, you know, the REMA National Convention. Frankly, now is a big international event and, uh, you know, we think it's a great event and, you know, wonderfully produced and we're members and great supporters of the association. But what we saw. Over decades of managing a circulation file. Recycling today goes all the way back to 1963. So we've been doing this for quite some time, and we saw that there were thousands of scrap dealers, metals, recyclers out there that were not. Really involved in any industry association and that there was an opportunity to help create a forum for those people. At the same time, we had been having customers come to us for years, many, many years, and saying to us, industry suppliers saying, could you help us figure out how to do a road show? How could we. Actually show our equipment to people so they could run it, operate it, see what the difference is. And of course that's a very challenging thing to do for many, many reasons. But we've been participating in other industries as a company in live demonstration events. And so we felt like there was an opportunity to create that kind of a forum to serve the metals recycling space. Those two things came together to create. Scrap expo and help us to develop that concept for the industry. So I guess the question is, what is scrap expo? How do you differentiate yourself? Which you have given us a little bit on, but you can go a bit further there. And who do we expect to actually see there? Who are the people that attend that? So Scrap Expo is a, is very different than anything else in the industry. First of all, we host it every year in Louisville, Kentucky. So it's a known kind of commodity when you come in, you know the space, you know the place. Um, it's a bit of a second tier city. Louisville's an a fantastic city, but. Because it's a bit of a second thi it's a little bit less expensive to get there and to be there. And we find that to be a derivative benefit for the expo. And scrap Expo is also an event that we keep it short, right? It's a two day event. It starts on a Tuesday or Wednesday, and ends on Wednesday or Thursday. Depends on the year. We've changed it a little bit. We keep it tight, and the reason is we have many, many small operators, owner operators who attend the event, and it's hard for them to get away from their operations for extended periods of time, and so they really appreciate the fact that they can be in their yard on Monday. Still come to Scrap Expo on Tuesday, be there Wednesday. We typically end a little bit early the last day and folks can head home. Now. Some people hang out, some people do other yard visits, some people do some other types of, um, traveling in the region, but it's a two day event and you can do it. We also do it always so that it's in the middle of the month, so it doesn't interfere, particularly in the fares side of the industry with the buy. Cell week or the, I've gotta ship this material out last week of the month kind of thing, right? Sure. And so we've built it really to be conducive to the industry. Um, one of the other thing that's kind of unique about Scrap Expo that frankly we didn't expect when we started the event was. We've seen a lot of small companies attend. I mean, many, many independent owner operators, auto dismantler, auto recyclers, small yards. But then we've also seen from some of the big steel mills from some of the very large companies in the industry. Send huge groups of their operations teams to the event. So that, that we really didn't expect when we started the event. And it's been neat to see those groups come in and a lot of those groups will also plan alternative meetings. They'll do internal meetings maybe the next day in Louisville because they have a bunch of plant operators together who don't normally get together because they. Literally run facilities in different cities across the region or across the country. Um, it's quite interesting because operationally this convention sticks out. The experience is completely different in a way that if you are looking to buy a mobile share, fantastic. Go outside, outside, go and try and use a couple of them and make a decision. It's very, very difficult to do that anywhere else, in any other way. Um, so that's where really I, I feel that it's a great opportunity to send operations team. And just to touch on, you know, you spoke about like. Operators that can come out on the Tuesday and leave on the Wednesday afternoon. I met them, we were exhibiting last year, and I met people that were there that actually were just popping in that had been able to get away as quick as they could and get back the next day back into their yard. But because it was that short period and in the middle of the week, everything you talk about actually makes a lot of sense. Um, but then what's so interesting is I was speaking to somebody the other day and they were asking me whether they should attend. And they said, but apparently it's only, you know, operational staff, not really decision makers necessarily, that these ops guys will go back and give their reports and then the managers will make, and I said, that's absolutely not what I experienced. Like I remember, yes. The top dogs from Padnos and Alta being there, I'm just thinking two people that I was chatting to, right? So like you've got some of the biggest companies in the country that are sending their CEOs and, and the owners of the businesses that are coming to the event. So it shouldn't be. Perceived to be just an operational lower level experience. I definitely think that there's a lot of higher level, uh, management there as well. Would you agree? It, it's absolutely the case. We've had a lot of, uh, CEO engagement over the years. Um. Some of the largest companies in the industry, some of the oldest, most respected, uh, family owned businesses in the industry. We've definitely seen C-suite owners, um, very, very active in in scrap expo. And, and the other thing I think that's interesting is. We've seen a lot more traders attend the event. I didn't fully expect this, but one of the things that's neat is we've had a few of'em. I can think of one stainless buyer who exhibits at the event and, and they've shared with us that they see people that they don't see at any other thing that they ever go to, and they were actually able to create more new buying relationships. Than at any other event that they attend. Right. Do more physical business than any other event that they attend. While the other events are important and help them maintain important relationships and networks across the industry, they're actually at scrap Expo doing business, and so they found that to be really, really valuable. It's interesting, I never thought about the fact that you're able to get the people that aren't a part of Rema. Who are actually attending this because they're wanting to make a decision. They don't want to be a part of the big association. They wanna make a decision on some operational equipment and they come out there. And other than meeting them there, it's not easy to find out who these people are or to contact them unless you are going through 10,000 middle recycling yards through some database to try and find them. So it is actually a great opportunity, but next time the stainless steel buyer tells you that it's great because they can find new supply. Just send them to Buddy and uh, we'll look after them to buddy, right. For more supply. There you go, Jim. Um, now every year we've noticed it's got better. There's different things happening. What are we expecting? 2025? What's this one gonna look like? So we're we, one of the things that we've done is we've planned kind of a unique opening keynote. We haven't done this kind of thing before at Scrap Expo, but we've got one of the top, um. Investment bankers who, who analyzes and looks at the metals business writ large, not just metals recycling, but the overall metals business as well as one of the top. Commercial bankers that serves the metals industry. Not, again, not just metals recycling, but metals production, metals, distribution channel. Um, and also a, um, an economist from a law firm who's gonna be there, who does a lot of work in the tariff arena. And so we're gonna have this session that's gonna kind of look at. Tariffs, aluminum steel in the economy. What's it all look like? We, those of us who are in the business are very well aware of the fact that there's a lot of new capacity being built in North America. What does that mean for the industry? We all know that we live in a world that. It has a lot of tariff activity going on. None of us are quite sure what that means. We're gonna have experts there to talk about that. We're gonna look at the financial performance of the industry and what are the bankers who actually, you know, listen, everything that you do, whether you're building a new. Steel mill, whether you're building increased smelting capacity, all of those things have to be funded and somebody has to put the money up. And those bankers, whoever is syndicating that loan activity, they wanna make sure that the money, they're. Putting up is gonna be paid back. And so they know the industry intimately. And so that's gonna be a really, I think, really dynamic, interesting opening session at the Expo this year. And then, so is that a panel? Sorry, Jim, is that, is that gonna panel? That's panel discussion. So there'll be some short presentations and then So they'll Leach do a short opening presentation and follow that then with a panel discussion amongst the three panelists? Yeah. That sounds like enough reason to come for anybody just in that, but what else have you got? You were gonna tell us some other things before I batted in. We're, we're gonna follow that with a session that's gonna, again, if we look at the changing landscape that we have in North America right now, we've got a very different um. Trading world, that's gonna be upon us. I was talking with somebody earlier today and they said, you know, we saw this, we started talking about this back in 2017 when we saw this projection of new steel mills and aluminum, but now it's all really coming to the fore. And so the question is, what effect is that gonna have on flows, regional material flows, but also. The technology that's beginning to come into these melt shops and the quality standards that they're requiring, furnace ready charges, the idea of green steel, low carbon steel, how do we get there? Right? You can't just take the old auto bundle and throw it into a furnace and think you're gonna get there, right? Mm-hmm. The demands. From a quality and from a chemistry perspective. I actually had a, an executive for one of the largest Ferris processors chatting with earlier today who said, we're gonna see the chemistry requirements that have existed in the stainless and the non Ferris world come into the Ferris world. Right. Um, and you might argue kicking and screaming as an industry, as we may, that's coming. And so this next session is gonna look at that changing landscape and we've got some of the best in the industry who are gonna have a panel discussion. John Sako is gonna moderate that again. Awesome. Uh, John's moderated for us in the past, and that's gonna be a really interesting discussion about where's the industry going in the years ahead. Yeah, that's, that's a really interesting topic. Um, and if we can get ahead of it, like you say, it's been spoken about since 2017, how many people have actually moved on it or, uh, executed on any plans. I think you're starting to come to the time that if you aren't. Falling behind. That's right. That'll be quite a, quite a interesting talk. Uh, what else have you got going on? Um, is there different stuff going on outside this year? Um, other than the talks, we've got some of our traditional, um, suppliers back, I mean, companies like Genesis, um, and Sen Bogan are gonna have large footprints showcasing their equipment, some of their newest equipment, and we've got some new. Faces out there, companies like LeFort are bringing in a, you know, a traditional, um. Scrap metal shear. Uh, we've never had somebody bring in a guillotine shear into the scrap expo yard, uh, before. So that'll be a first this year. Um, companies like Harris American and Sierra will be there with, you know. Very big footprints showing off their equipment what their technology can offer operators. Um, I, I can't even tell you all the, the details on this one yet, but we have the debut of a brand new hydraulic material handler that's being introduced to the industry that's gonna make its industry debut at Scrap Expo. Um, is it a new brand or is it from one of the well-known brands? It's a new brand. It's a new brand. Interest. Yeah. American made. It's, so, it's gonna be, I think, very interesting for many in the industry. We've got some great technical talks going inside. Sbo iss gonna do a technical talk looking at what is happening in the world of material handlers. How do you have to think about your machines in today's world, um, to maximize uptime, maximize machine reliability. We've got, uh, the CEO of Green Spark is gonna talk about, uh. Some operation software and some of their platforms and so forth. And so, you know, those should be interesting. One of the things that we're doing also this year, which is quite, we haven't done anything like this at Scrap Expo either. We're gonna have a panel that's gonna be a technology spotlight and look at refining recovered metal, right? Because again, as we were talking a minute ago, the industry's changing. We're doing a supplier panel that's gonna look at, here's the tech, here are these tech platforms that are out there, and all these different machines and the ways you can apply them. But then we're gonna follow that with an operator's panel who is going to look at how they have actually integrated a lot of this technology into their processing facilities to create that really. Furnace Ready Charge, low Copper Ferris product. And we've got some, some great names in there that's gonna be moderated by Roanoke Shaw from Levitated Metals, uh, down in Houston. And we've got, um, Kevin Sitz coming in from Kershaw Recycling. George Adams from SA is gonna be on that panel. Um, we've got some of the leading technology companies from globally that will be represented. Steiner went corporation, SGM, Erie, uh, who will be there to, to be talking about some of the things they're doing. You look at something, a company like MSS, they introduced, uh, earlier this year, a meatball magnet, right? There's never been anything like this available in the industry. They're gonna be on the panel talking about what they can do. So I think that panel's gonna be really interesting. Brett Eckhart's coming back this year, Brett is hosting two things that are gonna be really interesting. He's doing a session on how do you drive down and manage your costs? How do you understand your costs? How do you know what they are? And then how do you identify and leverage opportunities for your business to really grow the company? We're doing something we've never done. Again, a lot of firsts. This year at Scrap Expo, we're hosting a workshop that is gonna be a, a scrap life boardroom. And so imagine all the independent companies that are out there, they don't have the benefit of an outside board of directors, right? Mm-hmm. And so this workshop is really gonna bring them the opportunity to sit in a boardroom environment with directors to help them think through. How do I deal with these day-to-day challenges? How do I look strategically at my business and leverage the growth opportunities? How do we manage capital? How do we manage the cost structure again? Um, how do we access capital to fuel growth where we need to? So that workshop, it's gonna be very elite. We're limiting it to 20 people, two per company maximum. And so that's gonna be a really fantastic event that's gonna happen the morning of Tuesday. September 16th. Do people need to book for that beforehand because you're limiting it? But they do. I haven't seen anything. Okay. They do. And how do they book for that? We'll open up reservations on the website. It's not available just yet, but We'll, we'll be getting that set up pretty quickly here. There's a few people I advise in the US market on the scrap side, and I'd love to probably try send them to that. You said you're gonna have people there. Is it Brett? Is, is the one person there helping or have you got a team of people?'cause it's quite hard. You've got 20 people asking questions that could all have different questions. How do you manage that? That's a difficult Yeah. Workshop. You're absolutely right. It it, it's difficult. We'll have a team of people in the room, industry experts, seasoned folks who are gonna be there to share. Some of their perspective and insight. That's awesome. That sounds amazing. That's very different. I haven't heard that at any of these sort of conferences before. And I think it comes down to collaboration and being able to help each other. And that's exactly a perfect example of people have already done certain things. You don't have to, you don't have to reinvent the wheel. There's somebody usually out there who's already been through this experience. You're going through. There's different groups that exist across the country. If you think about the alternative board tab is a group. There's different groups who do this kind of thing, but they're bringing together businesses from disparate industries, right? Yeah. You might have a printer sitting with a metal recycler sitting with somebody who runs an automotive dealership or these kinds of things. Those groups are beneficial, but this is something really specifically for the metals recycling business. Hmm. No, that's excellent. I wonder if there's the opportunity to take something like that and move it, um, offline as well and, uh, and, and do some zoom follow ups and things like that to really help people, uh, longer term. I don't know how Brett would find the time to do that, but, uh, seems to have more than 24 hours in his day. Somehow. Brett has more than 24 hours in his day. I don't know how absolutely, how he's achieved that, but he's, he's done it. Yeah. That's awesome. Um, how many people did you have last year? How many exhibitors and what do you think it'll be like this year? Well, we had a little over a thousand attendees last year at the event. We had about a hundred indoor exhibitors, and we've grown that a little bit this year. And, um, an outdoor, about a dozen. Yeah. So was it the same as last year? Was there about a dozen last year? It seemed like there were more, but maybe.'cause they'd take up more space. They take up more space. Yeah. And some of'em have multiple machines. And I think some of the cool things you're gonna see this year, like Genesis is bringing some compact equipment, right? They haven't done that in the past, right? So this can help show some of the smaller operators in the industry. Hey, there's. Different options. You don't have to buy the biggest genesis shear. There are other options, depending upon what does your material flow look like. Did you realize you could have a really. Powerful shear on your skid steer, right? You're gonna be able to see that and operate that this year at Scrap Expo. So, um, if you look at Sierra, they're gonna have electric material handlers. You know, again, if you're running an indoor, non Ferris operation, that's a beautiful machine for people to be looking at, right along with their traditional laggers and, and bailers and shears. Have you got any, um, you know, what sort of health and safety focuses? Is there gonna be, I, I think last year you had a session on that, didn't you? Uh, we do outside, we, we, and listen, we, we, nobody can go into the scrap expo yard without going through a safety briefing, right. We have a safety team of safety marshals on site who are kind of patrolling the yard to make sure that everything is done safely and done well. And, um, everyone goes through a safety briefing on their way out. Yeah. And they have to have a wristband that certifies that they went through. They have to sign off accepting the terms and conditions to enter the yard. And we're very, very vigilant about that. You know, we're gonna do it safely or we're not gonna do it at all. Jim, what would you say your highlights of last year's event was? What is like, you know, either a person, a group, a company, something that went down that just makes you, you know, excited about this one? Well, you know, last year we hosted the first night of Scribe Expo. We do a um, a dessert. Bourbon and cigar reception. That is a hit. Everyone loves it. Right? We did it at Churchill Downs last year where the, um, Kentucky Derby is hosted and people absolutely loved it. And we're gonna do it there again this year. And that's, that's a really exciting. Uh, element to scrap expo. What we do is we do our closing happy hour reception, give a break, let people go out to dinner, do that sort of thing, and then come back together as a group right, to, um, just participate in industry networking. Right. This year we're also gonna bring food trucks outside. So outside in the yard on day one we're gonna have food trucks. So, uh, so that'll be a fun, fun element. I think that's, so this is, sorry, that's during the day. You're talking about during the day that, that's during the day, not Churchill. Got you. Okay, so that gives you the option to get some food while you're there as well. Correct. We'll serve lunch inside on Wednesday, day two, but on day one we're gonna serve lunch outside. At the outside Expo. I was at the Churchill Churchill Downs event last year. It was fantastic. You got to go and sit on the stand, um, and see, you know, everything. And at night it was, it was brilliant. It was a light show of some sort on the field. There was something going on. It was, it was a great event. So I'm, I'm definitely looking forward to. Yeah, and the neat thing is about Churchill Downs. It's a huge place. So this year we're actually gonna be in a very, in a totally different venue than what we were in last year, even though we'll still be out Churchill Downs. So that's kind of cool. Okay. Yeah, that's very cool to see some different part of it. Jim, tell me why anybody listening should be at Scrap Expo and give us the dates and you know how so we can solve planning. So we are gonna be September 16th and 17th in Louisville, Kentucky at the KEC, the Kentucky Expo Center, which is really almost right across the street from the Louisville airport, right. Um, super accessible, very easy for people to get to Louisville's within something like. Eight hour drive for 70% of the US population. Right. Wow. Very easy place to get to. So that's a neat thing about it. The other element, networking, the recycling industry is really about the networking. It's not just about markets, but it's also about solutions. How do I find solutions for either the materials that are coming into my facility or the operational issues that I'm facing? And so Scrap was all about solutions and from the. Sessions and the speakers that we're gonna have all the way through to the networking and the booths and the exhibits. We've got a record trade show floor this year. Um, for those people who are members of rima, we have a partnership with RIMA so you can get a discount on your registration for the event. So, um, so that's fantastic. We're excited about that. Beyond that, I would say it's a lot, just a lot of fun. It's super accessible. It's not gonna take a lot of your time. The first year we launched Scrap Expo, I bumped into a. Husband and wife partners run their own firm. They were heading out to the parking lot on day two to to head home. They were a yard in Virginia and they said, you know, we were in the yard all day Monday. We left a little bit early to go home and pack up. We got up super early Tuesday morning, drove to Louisville, attended scrap expo all day. Stayed overnight, attended Scrap Expo all day today. We're heading to the truck right now to drive back to Virginia. We'll be in the yard tomorrow morning. Yeah, I think that's one of the great things about Scrap Expo. It makes it accessible really to anybody and everybody in the industry. Yeah. And I second the whole part about networking. It's a fantastic event. There's a lot of time available, there's a lot of space. Um, there's great things to go and see on the stage and to get benefits, so that's awesome. Uh, before we, yeah, we've got lots of networking space for people to meet. Right On the trade show floor, we'll have picnic tables outside. You know, again, it's just a really funny event. Mm. Totally. Before we go, I need to ask you a couple questions like I always do, but first let's start with who would you like to hear next on Born Scrappy? Oh boy. Who would I like to hear next? I didn't prepare for that one, Stu. Um, you know, I think you should flip the, um, maybe you've done this one and I'm not aware of it, so I apologize if I missed it. Have you ever flipped the, uh, tables and got, uh, John SoCo to come on? Yeah, John. John was one of my first guests, but this is season one. One of your first ones. It's like 70 episodes ago. Okay. John absolutely loved John. We had a great, a great episode with him. Yeah. Yeah. I think, you know, someone like a Frank Cozy would be great. Mm-hmm. You know, a former Rema chair who built a huge company and now is building another great company with his kids and you know, the next generation, I should say, of the cozy family. I think someone like Frank would be, or Al Cozy, they, they would be. That would be awesome. Yeah, I think it's a great one. We've already got Frank on the list for season four, so, and we've only got a couple episodes left for this season, but he'll be on the next one. Um, love spending time with him. Love talking to him, so that's great. Wonderful man. The show. Yeah. Yeah. Um, then now I need to ask you, what is your favorite TV series or movie? So I'll tell you first, I don't watch a lot of television. Um, it just doesn't seem to creep into my life all that much. Um, but movies, I have to say, you know, any James Bond movie, I, I love James Bond movies and, um, or, or Jack Ryan. But those are just classics to me. Who was your favorite James Bond actor? Um, I go back to the old world, you know, I have to say that I think it was. Wow. Now I can't think of his name. The Timothy Dalton? No, no, no, no. Sean Connery. Sean Connery. Yeah. The Sean Connery. Yeah. I'd be the same generation. He's probably be my choice. Well, I wasn't thinking you were gonna say like Daniel Craig or somebody like the new, the new generation. I mean, again, it's, I was definitely gonna think originals. It's gotta be the originals. Gotta go back to Sean Conrad. That's what I grew up with. He's amazing. Um, what is your favorite place to visit? Favorite place to visit? I would always tell people, there are so many great places in the world. It all depends what you want. But if I'm gonna pick one place, I would say, you know, Italy, I just love Italy. Love spending time there. It's a, it's a fabulous country. Wonderful food, wonderful wine. Wonderful. It's a great city. Everything. Great country. That's you. Wonderful city. That's why you go to John. That's why you keep visiting John Sack at his house.'cause he makes you his delicious pizza and his pasta. Homemade everything. I don't know if I've been, yeah, I've, yeah, it's, it's like being in Italy, but it's not being in Italy. And this might not be, but it's as close as you'll get. That's right, that's right. Um, favorite book You don't watch a lot of tv. Do you read a lot of books? Um, so as a publisher, I read a lot. I'm not a great book reader. One of my favorite books that I've ever read though is'cause it relates kind of to our industry is The World for Sale. Um, brilliant. I don't know if you've read that one, but it's a Absolutely. I think it's a brilliant book. Incredible about the origin, origins of commodity trading and great, great book. Yeah, I recommend it to anybody in our industry. I think it's a fantastic book. It's, you know, like a bit of a thriller at times. Um, it's, it's crazy to hear what they went through. I don't think they can do the same as what they used to, but it was a, a wild ride. Um, what they used to. Absolutely. I just finished a book, uh, cold Wari. Cold War ii, cold War ii, Jason Schenker, which some folks across the industry know Jason. Yeah, he's one of the top, uh, futurists and, and commodities analysts in the industry. Um, but Cold War II looks at the new world order that we're entering into and current events, and it's a, it's a powerful read. And if, if you haven't looked into it, I kind of, I would suggest I like that. I like the kind of books. I like the book, the New World Order by Ray Dalio, um, which kind of talks also, it's a few years old now, but talks about where we're going and what's brought us here and it takes a whole lot of history to do. I've read that. I'm gonna have to make a note of that. Yeah, it's, it's excellent. Um, and lastly would be, what is your favorite quote? You know, um, I'm kind of a quote guy and one of the quotes that I've held close for a long time is a quote that says, I cannot give you the path to success, but I can tell you the path to failure. Try to please everyone. That's a quote from Benjamin Franklin. Yes, and I think it's was as true for him as it is for us today. Man, that is so excellent. I haven't heard that before, Jim. Um, it's not often that a quote gets thrown out in here that I've never heard before, and I think that is brilliant and everybody should kind of like take that to heart. Uh, that's an excellent quote. Great way end to show Jim. You can't, you shouldn't use it as a guiding principle, but it's a good quote to have around. Right? Absolutely. Um, Jim, this has been fun, man. Thank you so much for being on Born Scrappy. Absolutely been great to be with you. Thanks so much for the opportunity. Appreciate it. Looking forward to seeing you in Louisville soon. Look forward to it, Stu. Cheers. Thanks again. Cheers. Good luck. Bye. Thanks. I know.