01.01.2021

Here’s to a better year - hopefully

Normally at this time, we ask our readers if they think the new year will be better, the same, or worse than the one just ended? This year it is hard to imagine that many of you will believe that 2021 will be worse than 2020.

While we all faced a great many challenges in 2020 a great deal of sadness, and in some cases tragedy, it is amazing how well many companies managed to cope with the pandemic and adapt to the changing conditions. In fact, by the fourth quarter, most rental companies and some manufacturers were doing quite well.

At Vertikal we coped fairly too. We managed to maintain and even improve the quality of our printed magazines, which were sent out mostly on time. And the effort to do so seems to have been greatly appreciated by our readers, at a time when some publishers abandoned print. We also continued upgrading and redeveloping the Vertikal.net website as well as extending our use of social media.

Two members of our team – Nicole Engesser and Rüdiger Kopf – celebrated 20 years with the company. Quite an achievement in our market.

Unfortunately, we had to move Vertikal Days 2020 to 2021, but the move also prompted us to bite the bullet and move it to an exciting new venue in Peterborough. Most importantly of all Vertikal team members managed to end the year safe and well, as did most of our customers and regular contributors. So, we have much to be thankful for.

On the political front, we saw a good few changes towards the end of the year and depending on your beliefs some of them would have caused great happiness, while other changes will have made us angry, sad, or disappointed. No matter what your views, we are hoping that the changes will help bring an end to division and discord no matter how the impact is felt.

While it might seem like an academic exercise, we will go ahead with our annual poll of reader expectations for the new year compared to the old - if only to change out our long running poll on the future of the office. One New Year’s resolution I am making is to ensure that our polls are changed more frequently in the year ahead. Please remind me if I fail to keep to my word.

So, in closing, let me thank you all for your continued support and contributions throughout 2020, on behalf of the Vertikal team I wish you all a very happy, healthy, safe, and prosperous year in 2021.

Leigh Sparrow