Wow.  Time Warp. I felt like I stepped back in time this past week when I went to the Bellingham Business Expo. I felt like I had a split brain trying to reconcile that one of my legs was walking at dinosaur speed and the other was running on a tread mill.

In some ways, the surface of business appears to be the same.  Business cards, flyers, goodies, prizes…all the same.  Even the shape of the booths is similar, the signs and trappings are not much different in the past 15-20 years or so - a little bit more technology and glitz and glamour.

But that is an illusion - that is the surface.

Underneath, the conversations blew my mind.  Many of us are still thinking that business is done person to person, in small cliques of business to business. That was evident by the increase in the number of small networking groups that limit membership to one person in an industry; and the number of people who did not know about social marketing and what it really is.

It truly has integrated and bypassed the old models.

Fast networking in volume is bypassing old style networking person to person.  In the new model, person to person still exists, and there is a whole new opportunity that must be embraced if business is to stay competitive.  The marketing world is changing as it turns more and more to person to network, network to network, and person to world networking.

All are transforming the fabric of society…and this must be embraced if businesses are to succeed.  We must become aware of the way that the new media is changing the face of business…radically. Joining business networking sites like www.biznik.com completely changed how I see business working.  And that gives me an edge in this marketplace.