I can only hope that you will enjoy this month's FE&S offering half as much as I have already. I have had an unmitigated blast going through the photos from the 2011 Dealer of the Year and Industry Awards Gala. What a pleasure to see so many smiling faces enjoying the company of old friends and new acquaintances. I can't imagine very many industries have a spirit of camaraderie, like the one in foodservice, that readily brings together colleagues and competitors alike to earnestly celebrate success within the community.

Please enjoy the pictorial on page 60, which represents but a small part of the evening's festivities. For expanded coverage of the event visit www.fesmag.com, where you will find additional pictures and video clips of some of the wonderful and heartwarming acceptance speeches from all of our 2011 award winners.

In this issue, FE&S also features 25 innovative and fast growing chains. This article is appropriate for our traditional audience, the dealers and consultants that help these chains create an infrastructure that allows for innovation and growth, and for our growing audience of foodservice operators. In 2011, FE&S has increased our operator readership by some 25 percent.

Along these lines, I am also pleased to announce that we have formalized our exclusive media partnership with RestaurantPoint. Formerly known as StorePoint Restaurant, the event organizers offer a carefully crafted and well thought out conference honed by years of experience in other industries. The RestaurantPoint team vets content for attendee interest and manages the size of the event to ensure quality interaction. The net result of these efforts is an event that features stellar participation on both the operator and vendor side.

We were pleased that RestaurantPoint approached FE&S to be their media partner based on the market intelligence they collected. Our positive experience with RestaurantPoint 2011 in Florida this spring confirmed our desire to be more closely aligned with this event and this organization.