Jeremy White
Editor-in-Chief
Pizza Today

Pizza & Pasta Northeast is finally here! It seems like forever ago that I began reaching out to potential speakers to discuss pertinent topics and help line up the seminars and demo schedule that will make the show so special to attendees. I’d never been tasked with filling out the card before, so I was a bit overwhelmed at times as I tried to feel my way through the process. I’m now deep in the weeds doing the same thing for International Pizza Expo. And though it seems daunting at times, I’m slowly getting my sea legs under me and figuring it all out.

It’s the same feeling I had 17 years ago when I was unexpectedly put in charge of guiding the editorial content of this magazine.

As I reflected on that, I came to realize that it’s probably the same feeling each and every one of you had when you opened your first — or 5th, even — pizzeria. Somehow, some way, you managed to make it through the gauntlet of potential pitfalls and come out on the other side somewhat intact.

To stop growing is to start dying. Someone much wiser than me imparted that information to me at a young age, and I’ve never forgotten it. For those of you who are holding this issue in your hand as you walk the aisles of Pizza & Pasta Northeast in Atlantic City, you clearly get the importance of continued learning. That’s a huge component to your success and I congratulate you for that. Others reading this issue aren’t attending PPNE, but will be at International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas in five months. The same quest for a better understanding of the ever-changing business landscape applies to you as well.

Then there are the percentage of our readers who have never made it to Pizza Expo or PPNE. I’m truly flattered to know that you find enough value in the pages of Pizza Today that you don’t need to travel outside your four walls to improve. Or is it that you simply are too overworked and stressed to leave your shop for a few days?

If it’s the latter, you need the help more than anyone else, so seek it out by getting to Pizza Expo in March!

The ultimate point is that we’re never perfect and it behooves us to constantly strive for improvement. I know those of you walking the PPNE show floor as you read this agree.

Best,

Jeremy White
Editor-In-Chief