When we started dreaming about the magazine that would eventually become Sync, we thought that the biggest thing happening in enterprise technology was the cloud. How naive we were: in the last year alone, the cloud has become part of the natural landscape for executives working in technology, and mobility has taken center stage as the trend primed to change our working world. And if Moore’s Law continues to have its way, mobility will be the natural state of things in no time at all.

So where did that leave us? We realized it wouldn’t be feasible to make a “technology” magazine. Our interest wasn’t in looking at the newest trends and shiny platforms, but at the executives employing them to make a difference in their company. We call these individuals technology leaders, but they run the gamut from IT executives of global companies to CEOs driving innovations in enterprise technology and from security experts to bold entrepreneurs rethinking how new technologies can be deployed. In talking to these individuals, it became clear that while technology exists in a fluid state, the ideas to harness it effectively are timeless.

Sync would be a magazine dedicated to bringing these ideas together. Structurally, we wanted our focus to orbit the technology leader and move outward. Sync begins with Think, a section dedicated to sharing the lessons and experiences that will allow a technology leader to upgrade his/her own performance. With Lead, we move one step down to the team working under the technology leader, exploring how they can best be organized and motivated to carry new ideas throughout the business. Expand brings these ideas to the organizational level, examining the ways technology leaders can work across business units and the market to turn these ideas into reality. The magazine concludes with Focus, a section that highlights executives working in a particular industry to see how technology is changing the status quo.

I’ve worked on several magazines during my career with Guerrero Howe. The most important lesson I have for working in the editorial space is that you can’t do it alone. Sync was no different. On the production side, our team consisted of several Profile magazine veterans: senior designer Mary Delaware spearheaded the creation of an aesthetic that allowed the ideas to take center stage. Sync’s associate editor, Cyndi Fecher, established a standardized style guide and set a standard for clarity, which is a necessity given how quickly things in this space evolve. And Caleb Fox, the magazine’s photo editor and staff photographer, set a benchmark for his portraits of several of the first issue’s featured executives. On the sales and account management side, special thanks are due to Ty Attiek and Taylor Gerrity, who boldly took the first step into the world of technology leadership and determined who we were going to talk to and why.

Sending Issue 001 off to the printer marks the evolution of Sync from an idea to a living document on the state of technology leadership today. As we look forward, we’ll be discussing how IT is changing the public sector, the ways mobility trends will affect how we work, and we’ll continue to build our network of seasoned leaders and experts to create effective dialogue around these ideas beyond the pages of the magazine. No one knows how technology will change tomorrow; regardless, it’s an exciting place to be.

Sean Conner, Managing Editor