Dear IWIRC Member,

During these challenging times, we hope that you, your families and friends are healthy and safe. 

In today's age of advanced technology, innovation, research and development, never could I have imagined that a global health crisis due to a virus would have such a profound effect on our economies and daily lives; and the speed at which this has happened is absolutely mind boggling. 

Luckily for some of us, the advances in technology have allowed us to efficiently and effectively work from home and to remain socially connected, while remaining physically distant so we can all do our part to slow the spread of the coronavirus. To those of you with young children at home and technology challenges, working from home may be very stressful. We're thinking of you as we consider ways to stay connected and to support you during the COVID-19 crisis. 

While physical distancing policies have led to the cancellation of our Spring conference and regional and local network events around the globe, we intend to leverage technology to keep us connected during this pandemic. 

Our program committee and communication committee are working together to use video conferencing technology to provide opportunities for us to network, stay connected, share experiences as well as deliver educational content to our members during the COVID-19 crisis. We expect to have our 'virtual programming' up and running within the next week or two, so watch out for emails from IWIRC and updates on our website at www.iwirc.com.

In North America, it is expected that we will be working from home until at least May, so the programming committee welcomes ideas and content from networks that we can share with our members (globally) during this time. Please send your ideas to Tara Schellhorn, tschellhorn@RIKER.com, or Jodi Dubose, jdubose@srbp.com, the Program Committee Co-Directors, and please copy Shari Bedker, sbedker@iwirc.com, IWIRC's Administrative Director. 

I also want to acknowledge and thank networks that have written to their members with letters of support and those that are already using technology to staying connected with their members through virtual happy hours, coffee chats, newsletters, etc. It's so important to continue to have opportunities to socialize during this stressful time, to stay connected with one another and show we care.

From a professional perspective, our industry is experiencing an exponential increase in activity as businesses struggle to deal with the sharp and immediate downturn in revenue and liquidity related to the COVID-19 pandemic and will need our professional support and guidance. I expect that we will see a significant increase in demand for insolvency and restructuring services over the next 18-24 months, so I encourage members to stay connected and reach out to the global network of IWIRC members for assistance, support and referrals. The Networks and Speakers Bureau sections of the IWIRC website are good resources for locating members in various geographies and subject matter experts respectively. 

During this difficult time let's keep our families healthy and safe by practicing physical distancing but continue to engage socially through tools such as Facetime, Zoom, Google hangouts, etc. so that we can continue to connect and support one another. 

I look forward to connecting with you virtually at one of our upcoming events.   

Stay Healthy. 
 
Michelle 
IWIRC Chair