How did you start 2020?

Did you make New Year’s resolutions? Was it to get in shape or organize your finances?

How about updating your Zoom background or learning how to bake sourdough bread? No, not so much?

This might not be the year any of us expected, but it’s the one we have. In similar fashion, this isn’t quite the 2020 in Biz package we at the Business Journal envisioned going into the year, but it’s the one we proudly present to you in this latest edition of the WilmingtonBiz Magazine.

Our 2020 in Biz project – pegged to the Greater Wilmington Business Journal’s 20th anniversary – was a chance to mark not just how we’ve grown as a publication but also how the region has changed over the past two decades. We also wanted to take the opportunity to look forward to the next two decades.

With those goals in mind, we planned for a regular series in the newspaper around that theme, group discussions with thought leaders to talk about key future issues, a Power Breakfast with hundreds of our readers on the topic and more.

Then March – and, well, you know what happened. You were there too.

So while news coverage and attention pivoted to documenting the impacts of COVID-19 and sharing information to help people adjust to the fast-changing conditions, the calendar still says 2020.

In this special edition of the magazine, we take a deep look at the past, present and future of the region.

Flip through the pages, and you’ll find timelines about major happenings in the Cape Fear region since 2000. Our team wrote feature stories checking in the local economy’s major sectors. Local leaders shared their thoughts about what’s next for their industries.

And for those of you who love a good stat – who doesn’t? – there are graphics galore courtesy of our talented designer Suzi Drake to see at a glance how things have changed.

Sometimes in the midst of disruption, it’s difficult to see the long view.

We hope this issue gives you that break to do so, to take stock of where the community’s been and to put some thought into what comes next.

Vicky Janowski is editor of the Greater Wilmington Business Journal.