With the rapid pace of change taking place these days in the world of public assembly venues, it is more important than ever that those of us in the business maintain ways of communicating effectively with each other and reaching out to the broader community of decision-makers whose actions will impact our future. By virtue of its broad-based membership and global representation, WCVM is the kind of group that can help achieve these goals, and I'm pleased to be taking on a role in its development.

The venues sector covers such a wide range of facilities and activities that it sometimes seems we have little in common. However, the fact is that we all face common issues such as funding, security, building operations and ownership, and by exchanging information and experiences we can all help each other to understand and benefit from what's happening in other parts of the world. The WCVM web site is a great vehicle for this kind of exchange and I'd encourage all members to use it to full advantage by posting announcements, insights and new developments here as a way of letting everyone get an ongoing overview of activities that are shaping our industry.

At the same time, we have decided to take a more aggressive approach to communicating with the world beyond our own with the development and issuance of a "global statement" on an annual basis. This statement would be a summary of key issues and opportunities facing the industry each year and a summary of how member organizations perceive the future. It is our hope that we will be able to get greater prominence for our key issues by organizing the broad array of challenges and opportunities we face into this type of more focussed and condensed format.