It is my honor to welcome our readers to this inaugural issue of Western ABC Bulletin which represents the work of several of our Western Region members. The collection of articles presented here might appear slim at first sight but it symbolizes the potential we have to produce knowledge—practical, pedagogical, and theoretical—for our field as a west coast group of business communicators—practitioners, instructors, administrators, trainers, and consultants. Our region can develop an identity of its own in business and professional communication with its wealth of technological research, entrepreneurial leadership, and the presence of major business colleges.

While we view Western ABC Bulletin as a forum for business and professional communication professionals, researchers, and instructors to share their current activities, we also see it as a publication venue for scholarly research, professional commentaries, and pedagogical endeavors that report innovation, as well as, improve on our current practices. The Bulletin plans to publish interviews with business and professional communication educators, professionals, and researchers to place a spotlight on their recent work and we welcome nominations and self-nominations for this purpose.

Among the highlights of this issue are profiles of four western award winners from the 2018 International Conference of the Association for Business Communication, two exposés of well-tried business communication assignments by instructors from our region, and a synopsis of three pertinent technologies in our Hot Topics feature. Instructors and administrators will find them a food for thought when considering these technologies for application in business communication classrooms, schools, and workplaces. Last, readers will find several interviews with our members whose writing is included on these pages.

We hope that these interviews are only a beginning for this publication as we invite our readers to recommend the names of business and professional communication practitioners, designers, instructors, and consultants whose work might be of interest to this readership. We also invite submissions for our second issue of this year which can include short articles on a variety of topics of interest to this publication’s audience; successful classroom activities and assignments; professional notes on emerging technologies relevant to business and professional communication practice, teaching, and research; book reviews; and preliminary results of research studies in progress, or concluded. We would also like to hear from our readers about this first issue of the Western ABC Bulletin.

Sushil Oswal
oswal@u.washington.edu