A look at the news headlines that ran in the lead-up to LASER World of PHOTONICS 2023 provides convincing evidence that the events of the past portend the future. During spring 2023, bank failures in the U.S. triggered a flurry of action from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation — an institution that instills confidence in consumers largely by staying out of news cycles. Armed conflicts raged on three continents without indications of slowing. And the U.S. and European powers expanded export controls on Russia. The measures raised the public’s anxiety about the prospect of tit-for-tat restrictions on and from world powers and, more broadly, an increasingly disconnected global commerce. Photonics Spectra’s June 2023 editorial captured the uncertain atmosphere of the season. As it turns out, the column also provided a remarkably apropos bit of foreshadowing. This year, the backdrop of uncertainty against which LASER World of PHOTONICS 2025 (LASER Munich) will kick off may resemble that of 2023, but there is no question we are in different times. Global alliances are altering. Supply chains are on the verge of shifting. Science and research budgets face cuts that inhibit the types of breakthroughs that catalyze and sustain iterative advancements and culminate in Nobel Prizes. Much is apt to change during two years. In the current state of the world, however, conditions are ripe for upheavals seemingly every day. As a highly connected industry, photonics is susceptible to the effects of such turmoil. For this reason, the industry’s convergence in Munich cannot come soon enough. Though the year is not yet half over, previous gatherings, such as Photonics West in January, OFC in March, and, most recently, CLEO and SID Display Week in May, feel like distant memories. In the roughly two-month spans between each of those events, uncertainty has not only intensified — it has eclipsed all contenders to prevail as the dominant theme of the year-to-date. How, exactly, the more than 1300 anticipated exhibitors at LASER Munich expect this reality to play out is the question that we endeavor to answer. Though one never knows what an exhibitor has in store, a possible clue exists in the aforementioned June 2023 column. “Uncertainty” was the topic, and “How uncertainty can drive innovation,” was the title. It is already apparent that the topic of the article has resurfaced. Now, let’s hope that the titular message also comes to pass.