By Jeffrey Whittle, Chairman, LES (USA & Canada)

The high-tech company, Hewlett Packard, used to have a well-known “What If?” slogan many years ago. This slogan became associated with innovation and more specifically, innovating the future. The catchiness of the phrase extended to many aspects of life, and individuals often used this slogan in meetings to stimulate what we might call “outside of the box” type of thinking. The LES (USA & Canada) society just finished celebrating 50 years as a professional society. Wow, that is a terrific history, and now we have the privilege of launching the society into the next 50 years plus of the future.