As we are put the finishing touches on this print/digital edition of Vision Monday, I’m fielding news alerts, something we’ve all gotten used to, of the #OneYearLater commentary, recollections, memories and gradual dawning of the unthinkable—the one-year anniversary of the World Health Organization’s declaration of a new, fast-spreading coronavirus as a pandemic, “ringing the alarm bell loud and clear,” as its statement read at the time.

Certainly shutdown in the U.S. occurred a few months after other countries had already started to feel the advent of the virus, but even then, not knowing to what degree it would affect our lives and livelihoods was and still is hard to imagine. It’s easy to run out of adjectives to characterize the scope of the impact as it was unfolding over time, an upheaval both fast and in-slow-motion all the same.

As we look out at 2021, we are starting to see that what’s transpired and emerged since that sudden beginning has created pain but progress, stress but relief on the way, challenge but resilience.

This month, sustainability gets renewed focus in VM’s second cover story on the topic in a few months. And we’re confident that all of us will start to watch this space for an even faster rollout of products, programs and business models that support sustainability and environmental awareness in the optical industry and vision care space.

We also believe that some trends which have risen from the year-like-no-other are already showing up and hold real opportunity for vision care professionals and optical retailers.

Watch for VM’s new video series, “Micro Chats on Macro Trends,” consisting of brief dialogs between my colleague, Andy Karp, and myself, discussing ideas which emerged from VM’s Leadership Summit in 2020 and are shaping business today.

Each small conversation explores big ideas and trends that continue to reverberate throughout health care and retail in 2021. We want to hear from you, too. Keep an eye out for the videos; we’ll have a question to ask you at the end of each one. You’ll be able to email us your answers at vmsummit@jobson.com. Help us as we shape plans for the 2021 VM Leadership Summit.

maxelrad@jobson.com