Welcome to the inaugural Structural Engineer Buyers’ Guide. Two-hundred fifty-six companies and organizations submitted information to this premier directory: It contains 691 product and service listings in nine categories—all focused on structural engineering! Additionally, it contains 1,678 listings in 14 civil engineering categories.

This guide is organized into two distinct parts: the categorical listing and the alphabetical listing. The categorical listing arranges product and service providers into categories specific to structural engineering, such as building materials and structural components, professional resources, structural monitoring products and services, and software. Additional products and services that are applicable to the broader discipline of civil engineering are included separately within the categorical listing and include bridge and other transportation components and software, retaining wall products, as well as professional resources and hardware. Following the categorical listings, the alphabetical listing provides contact information for all of the companies and associations contained within this guide. Advertisers in this issue of Structural Engineer are listed in red, and the advertiser index on page 70 provides you with ad location and more.

All of the companies and associations that submitted their information for a free listing into this annual Buyers’ Guide provide products and services that are relevant to structural engineering—from cold-formed steel manufacturers to wind engineering consultants and software developers of all kinds. Each one of them wants to educate you on their offerings. You may recognize many of the organizations included in the list, but probably not all of them. I encourage you to review the guide carefully to learn about the wealth of companies and organizations allied to this profession.

Complementing this printed version of the Buyers’ Guide, you will find an easy-to-use, interactive, "e-zine" version available at http://gostructural.epubxpress.com. This convenient, enhanced, format allows users to view all of the information contained in this issue, but with the added bonus of digital features such as word searches, direct links to company websites or e-mail addresses, as well as immediate access to advertisers’ websites.

If your organization provides services to structural engineers or develops products that are purchased or specified by structural engineers and it is not listed in the guide, we want you to participate next year! To ensure that you do not miss this opportunity in 2008, go to www.gostructural.com/buyersguide and register your company for our 2008 Buyers’ Guide Contact List. We will e-mail you when listings are being accepted for next year’s guide.

The June issue will contain traditional editorial, including the Structural Engineer annual Salary Survey, a how-to article for minimizing wood floor vibrations, a cold-formed steel product case study, and our annual specifiers’ guide for bridge design software.

We are excited to bring you this inaugural Buyers’ Guide. Please e-mail me with your feedback so that we can make this guide even better in 2008!