Welcome to 2009 - the countdown on a New Year has begun and it's time to get ready for a bumpy ride from which I'm confident we'll all emerge stronger by year end (there are 354 shopping days left to Christmas). Here at Bizcommunity.com we've planned an eventful year in which we aim to retain our current readers' interests and bring thousands more on board. We've also been working hard behind the scenes to ensure that numerous product innovations emerge from the pipeline, expanding our offering, making access easier, highlighting content in a more dynamic way and providing a wider range of content more representative of our industry. South Africa is facing major challenges from the fallout of the global meltdown caused by the US, if one believes the world's saviour, the cardboard cut-out that rules Britain, Gordon Brown. But I return to the office more optimistic than I was when I boarded a Virgin flight from London on 15 December. While the second wave will affect us particularly in the manufacturing sector, exports should shore up the local economy to some degree and there is no sign of tourism seriously waning on the core routes. There will be casualties, but I can assure you not on the scale I observed on the High Streets of England for three weeks. Here in the south we are somewhat protected from the ravenous banking practices in the northern hemisphere and we have always shown our resilience in tough times. To ensure everyone is well-prepared with pencil and paper for strategic planning, over the next few weeks we'll be running a range of trend pieces in which distinguished industry writers will give their views of what lies ahead for us this year, so look out for all articles identified by our 2009 trends icon.
Hou vas! Robin Parker, MD. All marketing news to marketingnews@bizcommunity.com. Responses to this column welcomed in our new online editor's column archive or on our blog: http://blog.bizcommunity.com.