Okay, having just celebrated a milestone birthday might make me more sensitive to an underlying thread tying together many of the stories in this issue. For the rest of you who aren't quite as fixated on aging as I am at the moment, here's what I mean.

Henry Buhl, our Leading by Example profile (p. 54), is now 79, but he founded an organization dedicated to breaking the cycle of homelessness in New York City when he was 62 - "an age when your average successful businessperson is thinking of retiring to a life of golf and travel," writes Convene Senior Editor Barbara Palmer. Maybe taking up a new cause came easier to Buhl because he'd already reinvented himself. In midlife, he picked up a camera - and a second career as a photographer.

Buhl obviously subscribes to the belief that Age Is Just a Number - the title of U.S. Olympic swimmer Dara Torres' recent memoir. Explaining how last summer she decided to compete in the Olympics for the fifth time, Torres writes: "I'd set this crazy goal for myself: to make my fifth Olympic team as a 41-year-old mother. And the truth was, I didn't just want to make the team; I wanted to win. Along the way, I also wanted to prove to the world that you don't have to put an age limit on your dreams, that the real reason most of us fear middle age is that middle age is when we give up on ourselves."

Does that apply to our industry? Hardly. If our annual salary survey is any indication, this is a middle-aged group ("Gainfully Employed," p. 37). Seventy-five percent of respondents this year are over 40; the average age is 46. It will be interesting to see where the next few years take this group of Boomers, but giving up is not an option.

Will they move up the ladder to lead their organizations? It's a path taken by several former planners we interviewed for our cover story ("Meeting Exceeding Career Expectations,"
p. 28). Or will they continue on in their current roles, reinventing themselves and their meetings?

No matter what path we take, all of us have no choice but to evolve. The influences acting on us - the economy, demographic changes, technology - are significant, have lasting ramifications, and come at a furious pace. Technology in particular is a doozy. Consider the messaging service Twitter, which is currently all the rage (B School Brief, p. 67). Whether or not you think Twitter is a passing fad (we present both sides in this month's Point/Counterpoint, on p. 104), it's having an impact on meetings right now. If 60 percent of its users are between the ages of 25 and 49, as recent surveys have suggested - score one for the Boomers! - chances are that quite a few of your attendees are tweeting. As international futurist Jim Carroll recently told me, Twitter is changing the dynamics of the meeting, shifting the power from the speaker to the audience. We'll explore how - and what meeting professionals can do about it - in depth next month.

In the meantime, Convene is joining the ranks of the Twitterati. Please follow us. Our Twitter handle is pcmaconvene. It's a great opportunity to let you know what we're working on and to engage you in the process - and to prove that some of us old dogs like learning new tricks.

I Hate People
It's not true for me personally, but it is the title of a new book, out this month. With the focus on your career in this month's issue, we figured you'd enjoy an offbeat approach to succeeding in the workplace. Check out the excerpt on p. 61. Do you recognize any of the Ten Least Wanted in your office?