2022 is off and running, as best it can. January always feels like a bit of a buffer month between the old and new year to me, but now it’s February and we start to settle in for the ride. After the nightmare that was 2020, we had a full year of struggling to get back to normal, only to find that, well, this is it. For me, 2022 seems like the year of acceptance. Lots of words were thrown around last year — pivot, navigate. I think we all tried to do that, sure. But, at the end of the day, there was a lot of clinging to the hope for things to just resume as normal.

This year, I’m looking at my schedule with a mix of anticipation and healthy reservation. On one hand, I have so many plans for things that I’m hoping to achieve and travel that I’m hoping will come to pass. On the other, I am also finding myself thinking through all the what-ifs and contingency plans.

The point I’ve arrived at is this: it’s all kind of ok. We learned a lot in 2020 and 2020 Part 2 (you can call it 2021 if you want to). We upped our game with online meetings, webinars and virtual events. We had to get creative. We had to be nimble. We had to push ourselves to accomplish things in new ways. And so we did.

What’s to come in 2022? Well, hopefully a gradual increase in in-person events and opportunities for networking. But also, maybe more of the same. But it’s important to realize the good things we accomplished in 2021 and how we can keep making it better.

Here at Products Finishing, we have an exciting list of new initiatives from our expanding On the Line podcast and video offerings to our new Top Shops Insider column to our annual National Surface Finishing Day online event, to name a few.

Photo Credit: Products Finishing

What’s On the Line?

Hopefully, you’ve had a chance to check out Products Finishing’s On the Line podcast. We launched OTL last year and have released 15 episodes to date. But OTL is more than just a podcast — it’s a platform for showcasing the voices of the finishing industry and in 2022, we’re hoping to take it farther. PF’s On the Line brand will expand from our current podcast to include video interviews, peeks behind the scenes at shops, educational offerings and more.

Top Shops Insider

If you’re a regular reader of Products Finishing, then you’re likely already familiar with our Top Shops Benchmarking Program (learn how to take the survey here), which is designed to provide finishing shops with tools for measuring their key operating metrics against others in the industry. Each year analysts on the Gardner Intelligence team pore over tons of data to determine the rankings and put together the survey results. The Top Shops Benchmarking Survey allows us to give the top performers some recognition, but, more importantly, it offers shops valuable feedback about how they are trending year after year and helps them give context to their performance in the industry.

Whether or not your operation has qualified as a Top Shop in the past, you’re probably curious to know more about what makes the shops that make the cut so successful. Our new Top Shops Insider column focuses on just that. Through insightful interviews, shop tours and profiles, you’ll get a sense of what goes into making a Top Shop. (Check out this month’s Top Shop Insider Column featuring Hohman Plating of Dayton, Ohio.)

National Surface Finishing Day

Last year Products Finishing hosted its most successful National Surface Finishing Day to date. The annual event is a way to showcase the importance of the surface finishing industry in our communities and to celebrate new innovations and the industry’s workforce. In March of 2021, the finishing community came together online to share virtual shop tours, webinars and educational offerings, and celebrate teams.

Despite a year of limited networking opportunities, our community still found exciting ways to celebrate the great work that the finishing industry accomplishes. This year we’re gearing up for another exciting online celebration. National Surface Finishing Day will be held Wednesday, March 2, 2022. Here are just a few ideas to help you celebrate:

• Share your company’s story
• Hold an open house where the public can check out your facility –— either in person or virtual.
• Offer student shop tours to local trade schools.
• Invite local elected officials to visit and get to know your staff
• Celebrate your employees

Most importantly, share the news about what you’re doing on social media and use the hashtag #NationalSurfaceFinishingDay.

No one can deny that the past few years have held many challenges for us all both professionally and personally. 2022 will most certainly have its own share of hurdles. The important thing is to use the things we’ve learned and experience we’ve gained to keep moving forward. On behalf of PF, I wish you all the best in the coming year.