The bitter winds of winter are beginning to creep across the hills here in the South West and the crystalline beauty of my frost covered lawn now greets me every morning as I mount my trusty bicycle and make my way through the cold streets to the warmth of my office every day.

Opening up my e-mail inbox to go through my daily correspondence I am always gladdened that each morning brings with it a hugely varied range of news from so many varied corners of our industry. From the latest sign systems technology, through fast-evolving digital display technology, to the colourful exploits of our charitable industry members, there is without doubt very few sectors that can stack up to our in terms of sheer hard work and innovation.

Despite this, and as another winter draws in however, it seems that the global, not to mention the UK, economy is likewise feeling a distinct chill. Indeed, the International Monetary Fund downgraded its global growth forecast from 3.9 to 3.6 percent, with its most worrying finding seeing it forecast that the UK economy will once again shrink by 0.4 percent by the end of 2012.

What this means is that the overall health of the visual communications industry across 2013 will, in all likelihood, remain unpredictable. David Cameron has said all the recovery and Government strategy needs is ‘time’. This has some credibility, as the IMF itself recommend that steady growth would come by allowing the market to regulate itself, combined with an easing of monetary policy and significant efforts to ease the flow of credit—all things the Government is doing. Unfortunately this advice came twelve months ago, with the proviso that if it had not made a significance impact in this period, that the Government would need to re-think its strategy.

The result is that one clear conclusion is that our industry members need to shore up its defences and spend time researching how best to maximise their businesses potential to weather another impending winter of economic discontent. It is with this in mind that for 2013 we have created two new sections dedicated to highlighting the variety of ways our industry can achieve this aim, so watch this space and check out your January edition of SignLink.