Let's start this month with a little informal survey: Raise your hand if, one year ago today, you had heard of the Web site YouTube. Those of you with your hands in the air, keep your hands up if you knew what kind of content it had. Now keep those hands up if you had ever visited the site. I suspect that most of you now have two hands firmly on this magazine, if they ever were in the air at all. And that's no indictment of our readers. (I'd be right there with you.) A year ago, YouTube was not exactly common knowledge, because it was brand new - launched in February of 2005. While garnering a respectable 2.8 million unique users in August of last year, the site saw its audience skyrocket to 72 million users by August of this year (according to comScore World Metrix).

Today, the company that allows people to watch and share original videos online is commanding all kinds of attention. Amid a flurry of media reports and speculation, Google announced last month that it would acquire YouTube for $1.65 billion. Now, companies in the business of online searching and information-sharing - such as News- Corp's MySpace - are scrambling to remain competitive.

Networking sites that started as ways for mostly young adults to connect socially have hit the mainstream, allowing people to share photos, videos, and all kinds of information about products, politics, travel destinations, and more. The opportunities both for the Google/YouTube relationship and Internet videos are endless.

Does any of this directly affect the meetings industry? Maybe, maybe not. And maybe not at the moment. But among the many lessons to be learned from the YouTube story is that hardly any of this business of online sharing was on our computer - or radar - screens, even just a few years ago. The pace of change has been incredible, and those who haven't kept up are struggling to stay relevant.

This is true for Internet companies, as well as other media businesses. Savvy media groups such as CBS, Sony BMG, and Warner Music have sought out ways to be partners in the Internet revolution. CBS has reportedly signed a deal with YouTube to offer short-form video programming in the form of news, sports, and entertainment. Sony BMG and Warner have new distribution agreements with Google that allow the search engine to offer their music videos and footage of artist interviews.

All of this is further proof that the way that people communicate, interact, and gather information has profoundly changed. We in the meetings industry should examine the ways we communicate with our stakeholders, and the ways we help them communicate with us. This is especially true when dealing with younger generations, but applies to everyone as rapidly changing technology allows us to get more personalized information from many sources faster than we ever thought possible.

Having a hard time dealing with all the new developments? I don't know of anyone who is capable of stopping change, though there are plenty of (unsuccessful) people in the business world who have tried to ignore it. Being successful - no matter your industry - involves a certain ability to seek out change and look for ways to innovate, or at least join forces with the innovators. Are there ways we as an industry or our individual organizations can do things differently? Absolutely. It pays to go outside of our comfort zones and try something new.

Deborah Sexton
President and CEO