The fulcrum of the year-of the first half, certainly-will be Bauma. We’ll be covering the show in a number of ways.

First, in February, we’ll be introducing the show with a guide to the event. We’ll also take a look at the nominations for the Innovation Awards that accompany the show. Our focus will be primarily on those innovations that are designed directly for the lifting industry, but we’ll also explain those that may impact on the jobs you’re called on to do.

In March, we’ll have our main preview. If you’re visiting the show, I hope this will provide a handy guide to what to expect. If you’re exhibiting and want to be sure of being included, you should make sure to get news of what’s on your stand to us by the second week of February.

At this year’s show, we’re expecting a few last minute surprise announcements. We’re going to keep April’s issue open as late as we can, so we can hopefully include some of these in the magazines distributed at the show.

After the show, we’ll have an initial show highlights pictorial in May, and our in-depth Cranes Review supplement in June, based on stand interviews from Munich.

Exciting that Bauma is, it is by no means the only event happening this year. Throughout the year, we’ll have our regular features, aiming to find new ways to explain the industry. For example, in this issue, we have a piece looking at the tricky job of handling the increasingly huge components needed for offshore wind farms. As renewable energy continues to take a larger share of the generating market, this looks like a sector owners of large crawlers should be keeping an eye on.

Many of our features through the year will be based on our visits to conferences and trade shows around the world. At these events, we aim not just to review the show, but to explain the state of the local market, based on interviews with crane users and dealers. This year we aim to report from CICA in Australia, the SC&RA’s Crane and Rigging Workshop, and Bauma China.

At the end of the year, we’ll have our second big supplement, Fleet File. In 2015, I think we went a long way towards defining the industry more clearly, with type and class categorisations that more accurately reflect the jobs that a fleet is suitable, rather than just ‘ranking’ fleets by an arbitrary measure. This year, I’d like include more crane owners in the listings. I know it’s a long way off, but please do put a note in your diary to have your fleet details to hand this autumn.

Will North editor wnorth@cranestodaymagazine.com