I was in Las Vegas last week and the city was abuzz with the news that the World of Concrete would be held in early June at the city’s convention center. The in-person convention is expected to bring more than 50,000 people to the gambling mecca. The city’s mayor, the Nevada Governor, and various commenters on the event, including bartenders, cab drivers, and restaurant employees were truly ecstatic over the announcement.

This means that in person events are back on track. The organizers of World of Concrete are among the largest of such organizations and do not take major risks. They are confident that the pent up demand for meetings will bring out attendees and make the event a grand success. More than two dozen like events are scheduled between now and late fall in Las Vegas.

Every day brings news that the Pandemic is on the run. New vaccines are being approved, shots in shoulders are running well ahead of schedule, cases in Southern California, for example are down 30% over just two weeks ago, and passenger processing reported by the TSA are logging in at more than 1.3 million a day, well above previous numbers. Schools are reopening and the CDC has announced that social distancing guidelines are now set at 3 feet rather than six.

Incredibly, the usual naysayers in the mainstream media are falling all over themselves to report good news, and the populace is reacting positively to it.

The fear that has gripped the country for the past year is lessening and people are realizing that they can return to their normal lives and they are doing so. It may not be time yet to throw masks to the wind and stop washing our hands, but it is certainly time to realize that the microscopic critters that have held us at bay so long are truly in the rear-view mirror.

JVH