The COVID pandemic cancelled or postponed a great many things in people’s lives, from graduations and weddings to concerts and vacations. Another one of the many affected events was in-person trade shows and seminars.

I wrote in my April column about how much has changed in the past year, focusing mainly on what has taken place at Industrial Heating. I hate to repeat myself, but here we go again. For the first time in 30 years, our annual Buyers Guide will not be published in print.

It’s hard to believe how much has changed in the past year. When I wrote my annual April column in early March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t yet a reality in the United States.

If you haven’t yet discovered, things are a bit different at Industrial Heating. Change, however, is not always a bad thing. In fact, we would argue that this change is a good thing for you, our faithful readers.

July is always our annual Buyers Guide issue. This year is no different. 2020, however, marks a somewhat significant milestone – albeit a personal one.

Even though times – and with it technology – are constantly evolving, Industrial Heating’s directories (for the most part) remain the same. They may look different in the magazine, but their purpose never changes: to provide you with a valuable resource that can be used for the entire year.

Just as we’ve done in the past with other topics, Industrial Heating will take a look at the most-viewed Vacuum/Surface Treating articles (in terms of page views) on our website. Data was collected for 12 months, from August 2018 to August 2019.

Launched annually on the first Friday in October, and with events continuing throughout the month, Manufacturing (MFG) Day helps show the reality of modern manufacturing careers by encouraging thousands of companies and educational institutions around the nation to open their doors to students, parents, teachers and community leaders.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve been reading Industrial Heating for three decades or three years, there is one thing you should know: July is our annual Buyers Guide issue.

In what is becoming an annual April tradition, we’ll take a look at some significant industry events.