Here at Zoomba Group, we’ve taken a divide and conquer approach to our return to industry travel. Like all of you, we are trying to be mindful about where to go, who to see and for how long.

If you take a moment to check out the table of contents page of this issue you may notice the postal marking at the top of the page that indicates that this is volume 74, number 12 for this publication. That means that in January of 2022 we will be entering our 75th year of continuous publication.

If you missed the first two installments of our FED Lunch & Learn series, you may want to circle back and catch up by listening to the archived one-hour presentations at FEDThoughtLeadership.com, before the third and final installment on Nov. 9 at 1 p.m. CST. For the investment of your time, what you will gain is valuable

I’m a big believer in awards and award ceremonies when they are done right. One of the hardest parts of the past two years, as we have collectively struggled to cope with the changes imposed upon us by COVID-19, has been finding a way to appropriately honor our own FE&S industry award winners. Normal award ceremonies have been impossible to pull off.

Any dealer sales rep worth their salt has developed the ability to adapt to unexpected changes. In real life, orders don’t always come in on time, plans and circumstances around installations change, and sometimes the wider world imposes with unanticipated disruptions.

The past 18 months have been trying on all businesses. Foodservice and publishing have not been immune. Back when the pandemic first started everyone thought, or hoped is probably more like it, that this would be a short-term situation. And the mantra of many companies was to do what it took to weather the storm and emerge from this even stronger.

The United States surpassed the milestone of 65% of eligible U.S. adults having received at least one vaccination as of mid-June, per the U.S. Center for Disease Control. And the broader goal of 70% of adults having at least one shot by Independence Day remains within reach as I write this.

There is nothing like the special combination of uncertainty and monotony that a pandemic brings to remind us of the importance of recognition.

When things are going along just swimmingly it can be too easy to forget the people who have contributed to your success. This is why parents so frequently remind us to say thank you to those who have helped along the way.

The beginning of the second quarter of 2021 marks the end of the first full year of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and offers some real hope for the immediate future as we look ahead to the rest of the year.

Even casual readers of FE&S have probably realized that I am no fan of name-dropping. While it may feel good for me, in the moment, to mention that I have been out to dinner with an industry luminary or at a conference with them or talking one on one to someone, I understand that it really has no intrinsic value for you, the reader. In virtually every instance it would detract from our editorial purpose and probably cheapen the very relationship that I was attempting to highlight.

Any realistic look at how far away the end of the tunnel is has to begin with an honest appraisal of where we are at right now. The most recent jobs reports show large-scale losses in the hospitality and restaurant space.

January 2021 has arrived … thankfully.

The present is always a good time to have a discussion about the restaurant of the future.

To call 2020 a challenging year is a bit like calling World War II a serious misunderstanding. It would be difficult to overstate the impact of this year on all of our lives. At this point in the pandemic, given its pervasive global reach, there are very few of us who do not, at the very least, know someone who has been directly affected by COVID-19. For anyone who operates a business, works for a living, has children, parents, grandparents, siblings, co-workers or friends to worry about — I think that about covers all of us, right? — this has been a year we will never forget and one that we would surely like to.

For those of you who were able to tune in to our FED Lunch & Learn series on Tuesdays in October, you no doubt garnered a slew of great takeaways from our array of esteemed presenters and panelists. Their ideas about the transformative nature of the time we find ourselves in and the changes we are likely to see next in the world of foodservice equipment and design were both thought provoking and timely.

There are many versions of the old adage “When one door closes, find a window,” all with the same meaning.

It’s difficult to peer through the fog of uncertainty surrounding our collective response to the COVID-19 pandemic to see exactly what the post-crisis world will look like. Even the most fundamental aspects of our lives, like school and work, are subject to profound changes as a result of the upheaval that we have all experienced.

For years businesses large and small have extolled the virtues of thinking outside the proverbial box of conventional wisdom. Business leaders have lauded nimbleness in the face of rapidly changing competitive landscapes and oftentimes fickle consumer habits.

As the country emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, we continue to watch a grand experiment unfold with a patchwork of varied responses based on class, economics and politics. Opinions about where this will all lead are as varied as the number of opinion-makers out there, and individual responses seem to be mostly based on the sources of information that people are choosing to rely on.

Well, it is good to know that the appeal of cat videos and quarantine parodies has its limits as many industry professionals refocus at least some of their attention to the post-pandemic foodservice landscape.

Boston Market promoted Randy Miller, a 25-year company veteran, to president.

Normally, in May, we are gearing up for the annual FE&S Dealer of the Year and All Industry Awards Gala in Chicago. This year, that event is the furthest thing from our minds.

 I love the hospitality industry because I think it attracts the best people.

It’s hard to contain our excitement here at FE&S as we begin a new year and embark on our second decade as Zoomba Group. We have so much planned for 2020, and all of it is designed to make you the best-informed foodservice professional in the equipment and supplies industry.

For many years now, I’ve been telling you just how wrong I’ve been about predicting the eminent demise of printed directories.

Well, that’s the goal, right? This time of the year, businesses large and small peer into their crystal balls for a look at the future to form an idea about what the coming year will hold.

A special thanks goes out to everyone who made FE&S’ inaugural Tour the Trends event a big success.

Having worked in both foodservice operations and as a distributor sales rep, I’ve heard my fair share of complaining about health inspectors. They never showed up at a good time, their grievances — expressed as points on a checklist — always seemed trivial and I remember everyone viewing their presence as an unwelcome hassle in an already overwrought day.