As the economy begins to recover, European mergers and acquisitions (M&A) enjoy a busy start to the year, fueling forecasts of a bounce back in deal volume terms. To find out what the leading M&A professionals expect to be the predominant deal making trends of 2011, I attended the first IntraLinks and mergermarket breakfast event in the new series entitled ‘Securing Growth in 2011: The Changing Face of M&A’.

Held at London’s Andaz Hotel, in the heart of the City, it attracted over 80 attendees, who were keen to learn more about the M&A trends for 2011. The discussion was chaired by Catherine Ford, Managing Editor - Remark, The Mergermarket Group and the panel consisted of Martin Ashcroft, Managing Director, Brunner Mond Group; James Stewart, Partner, ECI Partners LLP; Stephen Wilkinson, Partner, Corporate, Herbert Smith LLP and Philip Whitchelo, VP Product Marketing - M&A, IntraLinks.

As the M&A market shows encouraging signs of improvement, exit strategies are creeping back onto the corporate strategy and portfolio management agenda. When ‘cashing out’ of an investment, what are the most pertinent things to consider? How do you prepare for an exit, when is the right time and how do you set a valuation? I recently attended a mergermarket and IntraLinks breakfast briefing at The Andaz Hotel in London to explore just this.

The seminar entitled ‘Dealmaking in a New Decade: Selling a Business’ was part of our recent series of breakfast briefings and the discussion focused on exit strategies. Over 70 senior M&A professionals from across the City gathered to listen to a panel of corporate and private equity practitioners share real life experiences and their expertise on how to make a swift, smooth and profitable exit.

At the end of April, IntraLinks attended Infosecurity Europe, Europe’s largest information security event. Celebrating its 15th year, Infosecurity Europe attracted over 12,000 information security professionals to Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London, where delegates gathered to discuss the most pressing information security issues and attend a variety of education sessions hosted by international speakers and industry experts.

With over 300 exhibitors, Infosecurity Europe provided the perfect opportunity to showcase new and innovative services to top security professionals across Europe. IntraLinks was there to showcase IntraLinks Courier, a secure, efficient and cost effective solution to streamline ad-hoc large file transfers. IntraLinks Courier seamlessly integrates with company email systems or can be used as a desktop application or via a web-based browser, introducing unmatched security to help business users securely exchange large files while maintaining compliance with requirements that govern their businesses.

Last Tuesday witnessed the IntraLinks sponsored Acquisitions Monthly Annual European M&A Awards held at the fabulous Hilton, Park Lane in London. Now in its twelfth year, the event, hosted by Thomson Reuters, was attended by many of the world's most senior, successful and respected M&A deal makers and celebrated the achievements of the M&A industry in riding out a difficult year.