World Services Group has been very active to begin the 2008 year. In the first quarter, WSG and WSG members have hosted cocktail receptions, meetings, our first online seminar and we have been pleased to add five new members to our network. The online seminar was organized for the North American and Caribbean regions and was held in March. This event allowed members across the region to be informed on relevant topics and interact efficiently. The seminar can be reviewed online under Meetings & Events, by clicking on: http://www.worldservicesgroup.com/meetingreview.asp. Upcoming in April, the WSG European Regional Meeting will be held in Paris. The highlight of this meeting will be a M&A Collaboration Case Study which will cover all areas of a successful merger. We expect this Regional Meeting to be a great success with a majority of the 33 current members in Europe represented by several attendees.
To continue getting the most benefit out of your WSG membership, your firm should take full advantage of all the networking activities for the current and upcoming seasons. You might raise your profile with other WSG member firms through regular communications such as the Viewpoints Bulletin, the Networkwire newsletter, Success Stories, team participation and/or attendance at events. Another way, can be to utilize WSG’s state of the art technology to promote the knowledge exchange among members using the Open and Private Groups on the WSG website at http://www.worldservicesgroup.com/wsg_opengroups.asp. The aim of the WSG board and my aim as Chairman is to maximize the potential opportunity for our members. Please feel free to call me or email me at peter.bartlett@minterellison.com if you are interested in adding ideas or comments on business opportunities. Thank you for the opportunity to assist WSG members and make a better organization for us all.

Peter Bartlett