CoreNet Global: premier association for corporate professionals.

CoreNet Global (CNG) focuses on the educational and networking needs of a specific audience: corporate real estate executives who run the real estate and related support functions for companies whose primary business is not real estate. Known as end users, these real estate executives are a large and influential group.

Globally, CNG members manage $1.2 trillion in real estate and workplace assets with an average portfolio value of $490 million per member and average portfolio size of 29 million square feet.

Given that New York City is a world center for financial services, insurance, telecommunications and media and that a presence in this conspicuous city is often deemed to be essential for global corporations, New York City is one of the largest and most active of all CoreNet Global's 50 chapters.

CoreNet Global's objectives are to advance knowledge, connect people and promote professional excellence. The core of our mission is development and delivery of practical learning programs for strategic corporate real estate, infrastructure and workplace management.

For the 2004-05 season, CNG New York City has adopted a central theme to define its mission and programs: Creating Connectivity between end users and other end users and between end users and service providers (real estate brokerage and consulting, construction, architecture, engineering, project management, facilities planning firms and economic developers) with which they work. Strategic relationships are formed between CNG members and the real estate industry at large, as well as the community. It's a big mission that the New York City Chapter is more than able to meet.

At the core of CoreNet's programs is the goal of exposing members to a broad range of new business models and corporate thinking, developing linkage between that thinking and workplace, infrastructure and real estate issues, and supporting adaptation of new ideas to our members' own corporate situations. In short, CoreNet Global serves as an agent of change, allowing end user members to rapidly capture and deploy new business models.

The form these programs take are varied and stimulating, which is a necessity when serving a sophisticated audience of high-level corporate real estate professionals and service providers, and range from quarterly luncheons to workshops, seminars, roundtables and symposiums, community and government programs and a wide variety of networking special events.

Among specific end user member benefits is the opportunity to participate in by-invitation only Special Interest Group (SIG) roundtable discussions. Introduced in 2003, the roundtables provide an opportunity for peers to meet in an informal setting, discuss issues and share information, ideas and solutions with others in their specific industry.

To date, the New York City Chapter has held roundtables dedicated to law, finance, media and pharmaceuticals and consumer products. The overwhelming response has been one of appreciation and acclaim. Participants consider the exchange of ideas and thinking to be a great resource and the opportunity to meet industry-specific colleagues, inquire about their firm's procedures, obtain recommendations and be able to access their knowledge and experience to be invaluable. The breadth of topics combined with the brevity of each roundtable (no more than two hours) encourages ongoing peer-to-peer communication among attendees on topics such as space planning, own vs. lease decisions, relocations, project management, real estate software, etc.

With education as the driving force, CNG also hosts quarterly luncheons at The Roosevelt Hotel usually featuring a panel of high-level corporate professionals who discuss timely industry issues, presents a series of seminars and workshops and is a co-sponsor of RealShare New York.

The Chapter also participates in the Eastern Regional Symposium where corporate real estate executives from eight northeast chapters gather for a two-day educational event.

The New York City Chapter served as 2003 host city, and the event began with a reception at the new Time Warner Center and continued at New York University with a discussion of Lower Manhattan and the World Trade Center site envisioned by Silverstein Properties. There were also nine panel discussions on a wide variety of corporate real estate topics.

The Chapter also participates in the CoreNet Global Community Reinvestment Challenge. New York City members are tapping into their vast talents, putting them to use by volunteering their time, resources and expertise for the renovation of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum's 1,000-square foot Visitors Center and Gift Shop located at 90 Orchard Street.

With 2004 shaping up as a year of high expectations for economic growth, increased bottom line results, outsourcing, cost cutting and governance, end users of real estate will be addressing how to continually improve and measure their real estate performance, within and with their competition, while doing so with fewer resources. One tremendous resource for answers to issues is participation in CoreNet Global.

Those interested in learning more about CoreNet Global and the Now York City Chapter, may call [phone] or o-mail to [e-mail].

MICHAEL DEJOHN,

CHAIRMAN, CORENET GLOBAL NYC CHAPTER

PARTNER, WG PROJECT MANAGEMENT, INC.