Barry Atkins Is Running Point on WFCT 2026 — Meet the President Selling the Floor

The person behind the WFCT sales line

If you’ve tried to land a booth, upgrade a sponsorship tier, or ask who still has floor space for WFCT 2026, you’ve probably already hit the same name: Barry Atkins.

On the public event stack he shows up as president / event sales manager for the International Window Film Conference and Tint-Off™—the contact for exhibiting sponsors (batkins@glass.com, 540-602-3268). Inside the parent company, that title sits on a bigger job: president of Key Media & Research (KMR), the glass-and-film media group that publishes Window Film, PPFMag, USGlass, AGRR, and [DWM], and that owns the event calendar installers actually plan travel around.

In other words: Atkins isn’t a side character on the San Antonio week. He’s one of the people deciding who gets gravity on the floor—and that shapes what shops see, demo, and buy in Q4.

How he got here

Atkins joined KMR in 2019 as an account executive covering international advertising, then grew into exhibit and sponsorship sales across the company’s live events: regional Glass Expos™, Auto Glass Week™, and WFCT.

In late 2023, KMR named him the annual Holly M. Carter Biller Award winner for extraordinary service—the company’s top internal recognition, presented at the holiday party and covered across KMR’s glass titles. Leadership’s framing at the time was blunt: he works to advance customer goals at every turn, and the room agreed out loud when his name was called.

Then the org chart caught up to the workload. With longtime president Holly Biller retiring, KMR CEO Deb Levy announced an expanded management team for 2025. Atkins was named president of KMR, alongside VPs for content, research/data, and creative/client services. Levy’s public note on his background still matters for operators: before trade media, he worked IT, telecom, government contracting, and financial services—and owned and ran a retail business for 13 years. That last piece is why bay owners tend to trust him in the aisle; he’s sold something before, not only sold sponsorship decks.

What WFCT 2026 actually is right now

WFCT 2026 runs August 27–29 at the Henry B. González Convention Center (Halls 1–2) in downtown San Antonio, with a full pre-event education day on August 26. Host hotels on the Riverwalk (Marriott Riverwalk / Rivercenter) are blocked with a WFCT/AGW group rate into early August.

The program mix operators care about:

• Automotive and architectural Tint-Offs, plus decorative, PPF, and vehicle wrap competitions
• Education tracks and roll-up-your-sleeves workshops
• Window Film Hall of Fame programming (including the software-era signal of Erik Devash’s induction)
• A first-wave Family Film Day on Saturday aimed at the labor/recruiting pipeline
• Co-location energy with Auto Glass Week™—same media house, overlapping buyer universe

Official registration and exhibitor paths live on wfctevent.com. Spring 2026 coverage from Window Film / PPFMag still flagged open exhibitor slots and pointed interested brands straight to Atkins.

Why the sales seat is an operator story

Shops don’t buy “events.” They buy defaults:

1. Which film and PPF brands get the biggest demo footprint
2. Which software stacks get the best aisle traffic next to training and warranty stories
3. Which tool, insurance, and marketing vendors look inevitable by Saturday afternoon

Sponsorship tiers on the WFCT payment stack still climb from Topaz into Diamond / Diamond Plus and Keynote territory—with the top levels routed through Atkins’ office. That means the person answering the phone influences which narratives get underwritten with booth real estate. For an owner walking the floor with a buy list, knowing who packed the wall is as useful as knowing who won a Tint-Off.

Operator playbook: how to use Atkins’ lane

• If you sell into shops: don’t wait for “sold out” rumors. Confirm remaining exhibitor inventory early and treat sponsorship as a Q4 demand-capture tool, not a tote-bag budget.
• If you own a shop: map your vendor shortlist before you fly. Ask each brand what they paid to be visible—and what training or warranty commitment came with the booth.
• If you’re deciding San Antonio vs skipping: treat WFCT as the densest week on the film/PPF/wrap calendar. Atkins’ calendar is full because the industry’s is.

Bottom line

Barry Atkins is the connective tissue between KMR’s magazines and the live room where the restyling trade closes deals. President on paper. Event sales on the ground. For WFCT 2026 in San Antonio, he’s the person brands call when they want floor gravity—and the reason operators should watch who shows up with budget, not only who shows up with film.

Track the people desk next to the product desk. The booth wall is policy.