For regular readers of FE&S, you might be tempted to skim past the masthead on page 4 because, thankfully, the names and titles haven’t changed very much over the past 12 years.

With only days to go before the FE&S Dealer of the Year & All-Industry Awards Gala 2023, which will take place May 20 at the Four Seasons Chicago, our excitement continues to grow.

This might have been the unofficial motto of The NAFEM Show 2023, which took place Feb. 1-3 in Orlando, Fla.

Once the province of c-stores and grocers, the pandemic ushered in a new era of grab-and-go competitors in the form of restaurants, corporate dining and just about anywhere else that serves food.

As we enter 2023, there’s no shortage of things to talk about in this first issue of FE&S. 

As we turn the page on 2022 with our final issue of FE&S for the year, you will notice a ride-along publication that leans into the promise of 2023. It is FE&S’ guide for The NAFEM Show 2023, and it is not too soon to begin planning your visit to Orlando this winter.

It is with a heightened sense of gratitude that I approach this holiday season, especially as I look through the pictures and read the coverage of the 2022 Foodservice Equipment & Design Global Thought Leadership Summit. I am thankful for the entire Zoomba Group team who stepped up in my absence to make sure we had a magnificent event. 

News of the day have you feeling weary? Have you run out of things to watch on Netflix?

As a guest at a recent buying group conference, I was reminded of a simple truth that any parent can easily relate to: One major factor in success, no matter how we choose to define success for ourselves, is who we choose to be around. The people who surround us — family, friends, co-workers and business associates — have a tremendous influence over what we strive for, what we value and who we become.

If one theme emerges from the stories of FE&S 2022 award winners, it would have to be persistence in the face of challenge. Indeed, many of these award winners leveraged their resourceful nature to find ways to achieve when many companies were simply trying to survive.

We are proud to extend our congratulations to the all-star roster of foodservice professionals who will be recognized at the FE&S 2022 Dealer of the Year & All-Industry Awards Gala, taking place the Saturday of the National Restaurant Association Show, which this year falls on May 21, 2022. As always, the event will take place at the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago.

There is a lot to be said for the concept of co-branding in the restaurant business. With little effort, it is easy to see how complementary operations can bolster one another and maximize the precious labor and real estate expenses that figure so heavily in the bottom-line success or failure of any venture.

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.