The annual ICS Company Showcase issue provides an opportunity for companies throughout the cleaning and restoration industry to expose a little bit more of themselves for public consumption than might usually occur.

Not that we shy away from industry promotion. To anyone who regularly peruses these pages, that’s as clear as the nose on Cyrano’s face. But the showcase issue allows a company a platform from which it can put forth its best face, products, ideas, philosophies or thoughts for the future if it so chooses. It’s another way to bring the cleaner and the company closer together.

But you can’t just fill a magazine with pages of company showcases, even if there are 36 of them. There’s of course the usual excellent coverage of industry news, products, tools and equipment, and the best cross-section of columnists the industry has to offer. Bob Wittkamp is addressing the issue of shrinkage in his “Carpet Cleaning Basics” column. Steve Toburen puts a finger to his lips as he asks us to “Listen On a Deeper Level” when dealing with customers, to really understand what’s being said.

Without relationships, there would be no business, which is what Tom Hill nails down in “What This Business is Really About.” Bob Merkt provides a brief look at a specific type of floor tile and how to care for it in “Understanding Saltillo Tiles.” And we take a tour of the world of low-moisture cleaning techniques with “High Performance with Low Moisture.”

Publications directed at a specific industry for a specific industry don’t usually get the opportunity to spotlight the consumer world, but ICS gets the chance with “Consumers and Their Carpet Cleaning Decisions,” an abridged report gleaned from a recent study commissioned by ADVO, the nation’s largest full-service targeted direct mail marketing services company. Follow that up with Armand Taddeo’s take on how to “Get Involved,” and you have the makings of a rather well-rounded issue.