Florence 2018

Dear Integra International Friends,
The 2018 Florence Integra Worldwide conference ended last Saturday.

As you can see from the agenda, many things happened but I want to underline some key factors that are in line with the evolution of our Association becoming more efficient and better accepted by our members and attracting new ones.

1.  First and most important is my personal vision which is accepted by the Global Board and by all participants at the conference.  My vision to offer services to our clients which we actually cannot serve is a key factor in our development.  To become a full service Association we need to enlarge the range of services offered, with the help of our Alliance members.

The Florence conference was organized with the Alliance of Business Lawyers (ABL) and the presence of Council of International Investigators (CII), and demonstrated the interaction between the Associations.  I personally attended a part of the ABL conference, explaining the taxation on art transactions in Italy;  Lawyer Mark Ruddy, Vice President of ABL, participated in our panel discussion about Cryptocurrency, Tokenomics & Blockchain.  Steve Kirby explained how CII members could help ABL and Integra members.

2.  Second issue is the topic of Cryptocurrency, Tokenomics & Blockchain that is considered to be an element of worldwide evolution in economics and also of our profession.  The subject was discussed in detail by Mark Ruddy (Washington lawyer), David Borg (CPA at ARQ Group), JP Fabry (Economist at ARQ Group) and Andrea Gaschi (engineer working in an international Company that has already applied blockchain).

3.  The third point is to be open minded and, to give all services in quality and quantity, we need to increase the number of members (CPAs or Accountants) with specialization and the capacity which are different from the existing members in each country and also in each city.

Our Ambassadors Cheslav Denissenko and Renée Dominique are doing excellent work to find new members in new emerging Countries.  Their job is necessary for our growth and helps to replace members leaving or members lost due to mergers between members with competitors. We risk a decline in the number of members, if we are not able to grant a total effective and professional service, and we at the Global Board will work for the best of our members and our Association.

4.  The fourth point was the approval of the necessary Integra International Bylaws, and now we have our guidelines for our Association. I want to thank Ali Mohamed Mohamed Ebeid from Oman who evidently studied through the draft and suggested some intelligent amendments.

Everyone agreed the necessity to enlarge the number of members of the Global Board, which now consists of 16 participants. The Assembly re-elected 5 existing members of the Board and appointed 6 new members. I think that the participation in the GB is a valid experience to grow in life and in the profession and I invite you all to propose your name at next elections.  A press release about the Global Board Elections is coming.

5.  The fifth point concerns the importance of marketing the growth strategy of our association; Barabino & partners  is supporting Integra International in developing worldwide marketing, not only through traditional ways (like newspapers and professional websites) but also through contemporary channels of communication. Social Media is fundamental for such expansion and Lorenzo Lancaster directly from Barabino NY reached our conference on Friday afternoon to explain the importance of Social Media Marketing and to make the use of social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter) easier to manage also for “old style” members.

6.  The sixth point is the new interesting team project played on Friday morning in which joint groups of ABL and Integra members have examined and suggested solutions under the legal, economic and tax profiles.

7.  My seventh point is that unquestionably the Florence conference was successful because this town is easy to reach from all parts of the world, it is rich in history, culture, art and beauty in addition to the exceptional content of the conference.

If we want the participation of many members and Alliance members at our future conferences we must take in mind the experiences of this conference and of the other successful conferences we had in the past where we can enrich ourselves from the professional experiences and also enlarging our culture (UNESCO).

8.  We have posted the Conference agenda and the presentations in the Members Only part of our website. Amongst all, I found it very interesting to hear about Cryptocurrency, Tokenomics & Blockchain – something new, something different.

Sincerely,

Giuseppe Scibetta

 

Art “is the game that can prevail over any other perspective of knowledge of the individual in emotional, affective, and relational spheres. The expression of images, rather than words bring about the deepest feelings and thoughts of man”.

Culture “is a series of specific features of a society or social group in spiritual, material, intellectual or emotional terms”. (Unesco definition)

Beauty “is the set of qualities received by the five senses, by concepts, objects, animals or people that are experiencing emotions”.