At the Interlaw Asia Pacific meeting in Guangzhou last year, it was agreed that the group should hold a client seminar as part of the 2005 Asia Pacific Meeting, to assist members in business development.

As a result, in March 3-6, Australian-member firm Hunt & Hunt hosted in Sydney the 2005 Asia Pacific Regional Conference.

Delegates attended from all parts of the region - Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, New Zealand, People's Republic of China and the Philippines - as well as from Switzerland (Annegret Patroncini from Zurich is currently undertaking post graduate study in Australia).

A one-day client seminar, themed "Experience Asia" was aligned with the Interlaw delegate meeting.  This seminar was designed to appeal to businesses that are doing business in Asia - or seeking to.  The program featured keynote presentations by the Indian High Commissioner to Australia, the Chinese Consul-General and a pre-eminent retail consultant. Additionally, country perspectives were shared by Interlaw delegates, Andreas Richter (Thailand) and William Wan (Vietnam), and Hunt & Hunt's international trade expert, and Interlaw’s chair of the Customs, Trade, and Transportation special business team, Andrew Hudson, spoke about the regional Free Trade Agreement for Australia.

The attendance list included senior executives and general counsel from Macquarie Bank, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, HOCHTIEF, Australian Stock Exchange, State Bank of India, P&O Maritime, Westpac Institutional Bank and QBE Insurance.  As you would expect, many of the attendees were clients of, or known to, the host firm, Hunt & Hunt.  However, several attended on the invitation of one of our Asian delegates - enabling introductions to be extended from a distance.  All of the Interlaw delegates made important business contacts on this occasion - and we are interested to know how their follow-up is doing.   

A formal meeting of Interlaw delegates was hosted the following day, allowing Bev Weise an opportunity to update the region on Interlaw activities - and importantly, providing a forum for the delegates themselves to share their firm's most recent successes and developments. Sam Beasley, one of the best known experts on law firm management in the region gave a presentation on the state of the legal industry in Australia and made observations about trends within industry, both locally and globally.  So great was the interest in Sam's presentation that Jim Harrowell is now negotiating for him to visit our friends in Asia to conduct a customised program for members on a range of issues relating to law firm management.  The 2005 AP Regional Conference proved highly successful, a key objective for this meeting was achieved, and the client/delegate format may provide a useful model for other Regional Meetings.