YOUR SAFETY IS OUR FIRST PRIORITY: DISPLAY WEEK IS GOING VIRTUAL!

DEAR FRIENDS AND MEMBERS OF SID, We hope that you are healthy and in good spirits as the COVID-19 pandemic impacts our lives and economies. All parts of our industry are struggling to adapt to the changing landscape brought on by the coronavirus, and SID is no exception. Right at the onset of the outbreak in Wuhan, SID's China team took decisive action to delay the International Conference on Display Technology (ICDT), an initiative in China that SID started three years ago. (The conference is now scheduled for the fall—visit sidicdt.org for more details.) Once the global impact on travel and gatherings became more visible, we also pushed Display Week 2020 back to the first week of August and are now planning to hold the entire event online. Shifting major conferences in this manner isn't easy, but the safety of our attendees will always be our first priority. While we would love to see you again in person, we look forward to an online program that captures the best of Display Week. We will have the full gamut of paper presentations, posters, and other aspects of the symposium, as well as multiple opportunities to engage with our exhibitors in digital venues and much of the interactive program that you are accustomed to seeing at Display Week. Many new volunteer leaders have stepped forward to help coordinate online programming (an effort led by Samantha Phenix) and exhibitor engagement programs (led by Harit Doshi) to create a digital backbone that will make Display Week as exciting as our traditional conference. The online format will also allow us to provide post-show access to select content and broadcast more regionally adapted offerings during the show that will enable Display Week to become a truly global event. These exciting new features will be piloted during Display Week 2020 but will become part of our regular show program even in future years. We are excited to see you—virtually—at the show and look forward to an exceptional program. Beyond the Herculean effort of shifting Display Week, SID also is working hard to preserve our financial flexibility, member services, and governance processes during the COVID-19 crisis. The executive board has decided to extend the mandate of all directors to cover the gap to the new business meeting, which will be held online on the first day of Display Week in August. Thus, we find ourselves writing a joint editorial as we collaborate to guide SID through these difficult times. Our society will emerge stronger from this crisis, and we are optimistic that the same will be true for the display industry as a whole. A post-pandemic world will feature more digital interaction, more remote work, and in general, a far greater need for information displays. Short-term impacts on supply chains and product sales will be resolved in the coming quarters, and we expect to see significant value gains for our industry as the world adapts to this new reality. Some of these innovations and COVID-focused solutions will be showcased at Display Week! In the meantime, we wish you the best until we see you at the show. Yours sincerely, Helge Seetzen, President, and Takatoshi Tsujimura, President-Elect