What does every leader need? Followers, of course. An army of one, whether in the boardroom or in a barroom brawl, doesn’t have nearly as much impact as when he or she comes armed with people who believe in you or have your back. Unfortunately, today’s college grads seem more interested in building a coalition of virtual followers via Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and the like. But it can get awfully lonely staring at a cellphone waiting for friends to affirm your selfie.

Luckily, there are plenty of opportunities in our industry for real interaction. First up, this month is Happi’s Anti-Aging Conference (Sept. 10 &11), followed quickly by the Sunscreen Symposium (Sept. 16-19), Cleaning Products Conference (Oct. 7-9), California Suppliers’ Day (Oct. 14 &15), ISSA/Interclean (Oct. 20-23), SODEOPEC (Oct. 27-30), and the CSPA (Dec. 7-10) and SCC (Dec. 10 & 11) annual meetings to name a few. The Happi staff will be at all of these and more and we look forward to interacting with our readers and reporting on the issues that are having the biggest impacts on the global household and personal products industry.

We hope that you enjoy this edition of Happi, in which Christine Esposito provides an A to Z list of the leading ingredients in beauty today (p. 69). Also this month, Melissa Meisel looks at new ideas in environmental fragrance from leading marketers in the field (p. 61). Finally, we talk to surfactant industry leaders for their perspectives on this important global category (p. 77).

If you’d like, go ahead and hit the like button on Happi’s Facebook page. Or, if you feel the urge, follow Happi on Instagram or Pinterest (yes, we’re there too). But as 2015 enters the home stretch, be sure to take a break from the computer, go out and make some real, human connections. After all, it’s tough to lead, or follow for that matter, when your face is glued to a cellphone.

Tom Branna
Editorial Director
[email protected]