The international executive search alliance IRC Global Executive Search Partners held their annual conference in San Diego, CA from October 6th through the 9th. San Diego-based Qualifind, Inc. played organizer and host for the annual conference which had executive search firms representing 22 countries from Europe, Asia, Australia, North America and South America.

The conference held at The Westin Hotel in San Diego's Gaslamp District allowed IRC's partner firms to dialogue on a number of issues impacting the executive search industry throughout the world. Some of the more topical discussions included how many of the partner firms have been able to weather the global recession by joining forces to work with other member firms in sourcing talent for multinational organizations with talent needs within their home countries.

Qualifind partners Fernando Espinosa and Warren Carter were able to relay experiences partnering with executive search firms in Spain, India, Italy and Washington, DC to lead retained executive search engagements in Mexico and the U.S.. Other partner firms within IRC that had conducted an extensive array of international search assignments hailed from Canada, Germany, UK, Finland, Sweden, China, and Singapore.

The conference produced two initiatives for the year ahead:

a. Increase membership through gaining additional firms in the Americas Region in specific practice areas and further develop specific practice areas in the global practice.

b. Two new members were added to the Board: Sylvia McArthur from Canada and Hamilton Teixeira from Brazil. Sylvia was also elected to be the new President of the Board. Qualifind partner Fernando Espinosa was named as the Regional Leader for the Americas. As a result, Qualifind will be actively involved in screening executive search firms in the Americas (North, Central and South America) for membership in 2010.

While the global recession was at the forefront of many partner's minds, many were able to report that they were seeing an uptick in new executive search assignments in various corners of the world. The IRC member firm based in Singapore was voted "Member Firm of the Year" due to their record breaking number of international assignments that had originated from their client base and region.

The members attending the conference voted on a location for the next conference in October 2010 from a list of choices which included Kiev, Istanbul, Copenhagen, Cyprus and Malta. The winning choice was Copenhagen. IRC has held previous annual conferences over the past years in India, France, Norway, China, Japan, Spain and many other countries.

San Diego-based Meeting Planner Lynn Hijar of Exclusive Events contributed to the success of the annual conference through her insight into creating events to further facilitate the flow of ideas between IRC member firms. The conference agenda included a casual gathering to launch the conference at Café Sevilla in San Diego's Gaslamp District. Another night included a formal dinner for partners at The University Club with superb nighttime views above downtown San Diego. The final evening of the conference was capped by a three hour evening cruise onboard a private yacht catered by San Diego's El Indio restaurant. Music representative of many of the attending countries was played for dancing on deck as the international guests viewed San Diego's skyline from the water.

Qualifind, Inc. is an international executive search firm focused on professional and executive-level recruitment throughout the U.S. and Mexico. The firm has a branch office in Monterrey, Mexico and staff with language fluency in Spanish, English, French and Japanese.