By Editor Morten B. Reitoft 

My name is Morten Reitoft, and I am the editor of INKISH. On March 11th, 2020 - exactly a year ago, the total lockdown of most of the world was announced. I got the message while on a plane to Germany. We were going to film Schätzl Print Emotion, and already at the arrival at the hotel, things started to change. Steven Asumang from Schätzl Print Emotion called me - and my first thought was - damn, the job has been cancelled - but no. 

The next morning we were picked up by Steven at the hotel. The Pandemic forced us to change the original plan since some of the companies planned to be filmed closed their premises for outsiders.

Everything went well, and we did some great films - that you under all circumstances should see.

Click on thumbs to see the videos we did for Schätzl Print Emotion.

When I left Copenhagen, the airport was empty. No passengers and the arrival in Germany was an equally painful experience - no shops were open, no people, no nothing - giant concrete buildings were already signs of past glorious times.

When going home, I was traveling through Bruxelles. This was on March 13th, and it was an extraordinary experience. The airport was full. Everybody was in a rush to get home, children, women, men, young, old, tourists, business-people, politicians, people from all over the world, people of all the colors you can imagine - and the airport was intense, a bit stressed, and everybody was watching each other. 

I remember a person in the plane sitting one row from me - starting to cough - not in his sleeves but out in the open, not carrying about anybody. My co-passengers picked on him, and he didn't give a shit - to be honest. 

Saturday morning, I wrote to my employees and instructed people not to go to work Monday. Working from home was a reality. The following week, our customers cancelled all the planned work for the pre-drupa events in the Czech Republic, France, Germany, the USA, and more. 

It was terrible to see how things felt apart within a very short time, and of course, not only with us but friends, partners, companies that we love and have relations with ran out of work. 

Looking back at these days, I sometimes can't understand how I got through them, to be honest - but those who know me also know that I always find solutions - so after the first shock, we decided that the Pandemic should be used to re-invent INKISH to a new normal. 

Formats like Instant, Over the Skype, Learn With Us, Plan B by INKISH, and more, are all products invented because of the Pandemic and have essentially turned us into a better INKISH. 

The strange thing is that the Pandemic has given us a way larger audience - thank you - but also a very stressed economy and unfortunately forced us to lay off Tobias Nielsen and Patrick Weltz. Both, fortunately, got new jobs fast - and now we are finally getting more work and start to increase revenue - so a warm 'thank you' to the sponsors who support us!

Though the Pandemic still isn't over, Asia seems to be in better shape, and with global vaccinations, there is light at the end of the tunnel. One of the ever-recurring questions is whether the world will revert to normal after the Pandemic. The short answer is "no." 

The more complex answer is that the Pandemic has changed many things - also for the better. We will maybe travel less since the virtual opportunities have got a place we find helpful. The tradeshows will open again, maybe smaller - and as one of my friends said yesterday. We may be way more focused on what we want to achieve. Therefore tradeshows with fewer people will have a higher value for the exhibitors anyway - but that probably will demand changes in how the organizers price and deliver their services. Mark Subers from PRINTING United, said in our "What's Next" webinar that hybrid events are here to stay - we agree!

INKISH constantly develops. We will continue our mission to deliver content to benefit our viewers and readers - and we have so many plans for the future that we can't wait to share with you.

So the new 'normal' will be different, but better.