I’m delighted that we finally have this blog up and rolling! It couldn’t have happened without Chris Hall and Shel Holtz. I am still confused about how Shel can be in about one hundred places simultaneously, doing one hundred things at the same time. I’ve decided that there must be a clone of some sort making it all possible. It’s either that or the man just doesn’t sleep. In any case, Shel has done a remarkable job of building the vision and rolling his sleeves up to attend to the details as well.

I’m excited at finally seeing this all unfold. To me it seems that since the beginning of time — or at least since the beginning of my time with IABC, about 15 years next month, we’ve needed a forum where communicators with similar interests and backgrounds can discuss topics that are of specific interest to them. The tricky thing about IABC is that we have such a diverse audience of members. We started with 8 specialty areas, but realized that trimming down to just three to start would make the most sense. So, we went with what seems to be most in demand from a content aspect. From my vantage point as editor of Communication World, I see employee communication, marketing/branding and employee communication as areas of interest that seem to initiate the most discussion. I can’t wait to hear some hot debates around subjects like ethics, information overload, new media measurement, to mention a few.

What’s really exciting is that we’ve invited some of the top minds at IABC to give their thoughts and push the envelope. But this blog is open to everyone for a reason. We don’t want to shut out any ideas. The more new ideas we get, the more we discover, the more we learn. And some of those new ideas can come from surprising sources. So with that in mind, let the blog begin.