President's Message / 2003, July

Dear Friends of ICA:

In the first half of 2003 the ICA has had some excellent events and speakers. Here is a quick review:

Speakers
Jan - Larry Thompson of J-Phone
Feb - Sebastian Doose of TUV Rheinland
Mar - Brad Hall of IBM Asia Pacific
Apr - Steven D. Fitz of EMC Japan
May - Ted Matsumoto of Qualcomm
Jun - Jim (Coach) Hunter of PMP-Japan

Career Seminar
Additionally we have also been holding a series of seminars covering “Creating, Establishing, and Advancing Your Career in Tokyo”. The next one is Sept. 2 and will cover “Expanding Your Horizons: Education and Training”. A special thanks to ICA board member Rusty Smith for organizing these well-received events.

Sponsors
The ICA recently got our first two corporate sponsors - J-Phone/Vodafone and J@PAN Inc magazine. The ICA Board wants to thank both companies for their outstanding support so far this year. J-Phone provided give-away gifts for our July 17 party at Quest and J@PAN Inc has done a good job in helping us promote our events.

The rest of 2003 should be interesting not only for the ICA but for business in general in this market. Many are predicting Japan has hit the bottom and better times are just around the corner. For us long timers we have been hearing this since 1996, however there are good signs that finally change is taking hold.

Year-End Events
Our speaker line-up for the Fall is not yet finalized. If anyone has good suggestions for potential speakers please reply to this mail and let me know the details. I look forward to more good events this Fall followed by an excellent Christmas party in December.

Sincerely

Darren McKellin
President - ICA