Readers tell us they still find the directory issue a useful and welcome tool.

If we can deliver the original content and unique events that you, our readers, want to associate with, then we can earn your attention in the busy marketplace of ideas.

September is a time of transition in many ways: for businesses it’s time to budget and plan for the new year, for families it’s time to go back to school because summer holidays have come to an end.

This was a special year for the Dealer of the Year and Industry Awards Gala for several reasons. I hope that you will take a few moments to review the pictures and video. For those who were there, I hope that the pictures provide a happy reminder of a memorable evening in Chicago. For the vast majority who were unable to attend, I hope that you will recognize some industry friends and perhaps a few larger-than-life characters who have left an indelible mark on the equipment and supplies industry.

Welcome to FE&S’ annual college and university issue. Looking back at last year’s coverage, it was all about Generation Y/Millennials and the impact this demographic was having on the market. This year it’s all about Generation Z.

It's hard to think of two things that fit together more seamlessly with overarching objectives than sustainability and healthcare foodservice.

A corollary in business might be: If you want to gain insight into a company’s culture, take a look at the way they treat their competition.

What the FE&S Top Achiever Awards seek to recognize is fresh talent ascending in different quarters of the industry.

It is time once again to begin the process of identifying the winners of FE&S’ annual Best in Class awards. 

Food Safety is never a sexy topic. I am not aware of any way to make food safety a sexy topic. But it is an incredibly important one and one that never seems to be far from the headlines. The CDC estimates that contaminated food sickens 48 million Americans each year.

Some see it as a watershed moment in human history; an acknowledgement of our mutual self-interest and the ultimate need for cooperation in order to survive played out on a global scale.

It’s exhilarating to watch good ideas take hold in an industry that has a reputation for being slow to change. But this issue of FE&S contains several great examples, and I hope that you enjoy reading it from cover to cover.

I always love it when we are able to bring you stories of people within the equipment and supplies industry or the wider restaurant community who are finding ways to succeed. While doing well, they are at the same time helping others or doing good. Keith Richards (the other Keith Richards) provides us with a great example in his Parting Shot this month on page 92. Be sure to give it a look.

We’ve got beer, pizza, ?Hallmark and a story about a movement back to the days before large-scale frozen food distribution. We are one Ty Cobb story away from a Ken Burns documentary with this issue of FE&S. Interestingly enough, it’s all about what’s happening in foodservice today.

August is our DSR of the Year issue and it gives me a chance to relive one of my favorite nights of the year. Combing through the photos and deciding what to include as representative of the Dealer of the Year and Industry Awards Gala is a big job — but a rewarding one.

Those of us who attend a lot of conferences have heard an awful lot about Gen-Y lately. These are the 18-to-25-year olds that marketers can’t seem to get enough of and the rest of us tend to talk about as if they are not in the room. Maybe it’s the headphones.

As the expectations for healthcare foodservice keep mounting so, too, do the creative ways that operators like Dan and countless others across the industry continue to multiply.

We are excited to share the story behind the success of FE&S' 2015 Dealer of the Year Award recipient, Clark Associates, Inc. By merely glancing at Clark Associates' impressive growth over the past few years, you will quickly understand why they were considered for this award in the first place. But, FE&S' Dealer of the Year Award is much more than a simple measure of sales success.

The 2015 NAFEM Show was a stellar success. Once again it was easy to see just why this has become the most highly anticipated show in the segment, even though it takes place only every other year. From the smallest booths of energetic participants eagerly showing off their wares to an appreciative audience to the largest booths representing hundreds of hours of work to set up and tear down, this year’s NAFEM Show was a dazzling display of stainless steel and showmanship. It occupies a place that is truly at the epicenter of the foodservice equipment and supplies world.

This is the tantalizing phrase that Jackie Rodriguez, senior manager with Technomic, uses to describe the growing trend towards taking foodservice to on-the-move consumers via smaller, highly focused outlets. This emerging category includes a variety of outlets such as food trucks, kiosks, micro-marts, and even high-tech vending machines. The aim is a marriage between creative high-quality food offerings and convenience, and the early adopters tend to be younger consumers who are more accustomed to eating on the run.

The first thing that you should understand is that Joe Carbonara, our chief editor, does not give up the reins easily. Especially when it comes to the things that Joe loves to do, like the tabletop judging that he oversees each year for FE&S.

An unofficial theme pervades this issue of Foodservice Equipment and Supplies magazine and I can describe it in one Hawaiian word that packs a lot of meaning: Kina'ole. This single word roughly translates into "doing the right thing, in the right way, at the right time, in the right place, with the right person, with the right feeling, the first time."

A huge responsibility naturally accompanies naming a particular brand Best in Class across each category of commercial foodservice equipment and supplies each year.

The headline to our piece on the Field Museum in Chicago might have been, "The Best Things in the Field Museum are no Longer Confined to the Basement." 

Although I am no expert on sustainability, it seems to me that that the best kind of recycled glass is that made from the shards of a glass ceiling.

Innovation is, without question, one of the most prominent buzz words in our vocabulary today. Business leaders and politicians alike cite the need to innovate when addressing what ails a company, industry or even a government. When pledging to improve things for their employees or constituents, these leaders promise to become more innovative in their approach, each with varying degrees of success.

They say that necessity is the mother of invention. If that is true, and I think it is, then competition has to be considered at least the older sibling of growth and innovation. Recent advancements in healthcare foodservice represent a prime example.

Quick...what do the years 1983, 2002 and 2014 have in common? And, no, they do not correspond with the years my favorite blazer has been in style.

One doesn't need to know a lot about foodservice design to realize that for such a phrase to exist, it must refer to someone who is not only highly regarded but who has attained the pinnacle of peer recognition and respect.