2007 December, Vol 55 No. 11 In the spring of 1987 I graduated from McGill University and ventured into the workforce with no idea where my career was headed. All I knew was that I wanted to use my new EE degree to pursue a life-long passion—audio. McGill did not have an AES student section at that time, but I had an awareness of the AES because our engineering library had a collection of AES Journals. I had spent many hours crouched on the floor in the periodicals section flipping through these journals, reading about the dawn of digital audio and other fascinating subjects. AES represented a magical place to me—where all the world's audio experts shared their ideas. I desperately wanted to join the party. But how could a young kid fresh out of school with no experience or "connections" get in the door? After I spent a few weeks of job searching, AES Fellow Dennis Bohn made my dreams come true when he hired me into his fledgling pro audio company—Rane Corporation. One of the first things he instructed me to do was join the AES and get active. He knew that the AES would help his wet-behind-the-ears engineer grow professionally. I started attending local AES Pacific Northwest Section events, presenting papers at conventions, and I became very active in the AES Standards Committee. After nine years I left Rane and launched three companies of my own, taking advantage of AES services to promote my inventions, recruit key employees, demonstrate interest in my products to investors, and form alliances with other businesses. Indeed, the AES has been the backbone of my audio career. And so it is with a great sense of gratitude and sacred duty that I assume the position of president for the coming year. I am eager to give back to this wonderful organization for everything that it has given to me. I am eager to help other young people leverage the AES to develop their own successful audio careers. I am eager to help nurture scientific research through our publications and conferences. I am eager to help businesses promote their products and interact with researchers. When the AES was founded almost 60 years ago the world was a very different place. There was no Internet in 1948 and people communicated face-to-face or by mailing large amounts of paper through the postal system. The AES established itself with a printed journal of scientific research and industry news and by bringing people together at its conventions and conferences. Everything operated at a slower pace as we waited days (or even weeks) for information and goods to transfer back and forth. The world was a lot bigger and more mysterious back then, and people depended on the AES to keep them plugged into the audio field. But in the 21st Century we are consuming online information instantaneously and participating in "virtual communities." The world is no bigger than your 19-inch computer monitor, and if a download takes longer than 30 seconds we get impatient and instant message a complaint to a customer support agent located thousands of miles away. While some of us still enjoy the human interactions only possible at conventions and conferences, many of the young people coming into our industry depend on the Internet for their daily activities. Thus, in order to keep AES relevant in the "Information Age," and for AES to maintain its central leadership role in the industry, I believe that it must significantly enhance its online resources and services. The first act I made as incoming president was to create a small committee to explore exciting new ways AES can serve its membership and the industry online. This committee is planning to launch several exciting new initiatives this coming year. We won't accomplish all our goals in a mere 12 months, but over the next few years AES will become the most important place on the Internet for all things audio, just as it has been for the past 60 years in the physical world. Finally, I am eager to hear your ideas about how we can make AES better. Please feel free to drop me an email (bob.moses@aes.org) and tell me how AES has helped your career and how we can serve you even better. I know there are young people, and even a few old timers, crouched on a library floor (or in front of a computer screen) flipping through the JAES gaining inspiration for the next big thing in audio. Let's continue to work together to help them help us make this a great industry to work and grow in. With warm regards, Bob Moses President