In his leader from the May/June 2021 issue of Digital Labels & Packaging, editor David Pittman outlines how being double jabbed and fully vaccinated has got him ready and raring to get going again.
As we head out of spring and into summer in the Northern Hemisphere, so I am discovering how new beginnings are bringing back old habits. As someone lucky enough to have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine earlier in the year (Oxford-AstraZeneca, if you’re wondering), I am, psychologically at least, ready and raring to go when the industry and the wider world is in a position to get going again.
I have been back into the office a few times already, and hope to get the chance to get out and see newly installed pieces of equipment in the steel. Also to bump fists with some industry colleagues and friends. I have a few irons in the fire already, so hopefully this will be the start of life returning to some form of normality. My passport certainly needs taking out and dusting down.
Regardless of the oxymoronic nature of ‘new normal’, the reality we now all find ourselves operating in is that the normal we are slowly but surely returning to will be new in many ways. Has the work-life balance* irrevocable changed? Will social distancing remain, as part of our day-to-day lives, rather than demanded? Anecdotally, I’m still getting used to the number of times a day I am now washing my hands, whilst our lockdown puppy is adjusting to not having me at home 24/7/365.
That said, I am very much looking forward to a time when we can all safely and securely reconvene in meaningful ways. After the last year or so, it’s heartening to see there are now a number of in-person events appearing on the horizon. Anecdotally, I never imagined I’d miss a currywurst from Düsseldorf airport quite as much as I have. Less the quality and the cost, more what it represents for me to travel and connect with the industry.
From Melbourne to Orlando, via Munich and onto London, I look forward to seeing what the future of in-person industry events is like, and meeting you when and where possible. Digital Print for Brand Success on 18 November, 2021 in London is sure to be a highlight, as the supply chain comes together to rise to the challenge of a post-pandemic world, and plot the role of digital in delivering this. Book your seat now at www. digitalbrandconf.com, and I look forward to welcoming you.
Until then, happy reading.
* I am never ‘working from home’, rather remotely or out of office.
This Editor’s Perspective was first published in the May/June 2021 issue of Digital Labels & Packaging, which you can read online here; register here to receive the magazine, for free
