As we move through the early days of 2011, I can’t help but reflect on what happened during December, which is typically a big month for awards. It’s the time of year when I blow the dust off my tuxedo, shine up my shoes and wheel out my annual James Bond impersonation. So, suitably adorned, I attended two award ceremonies last month that celebrated some of the great and the good across the European M&A community.

The first was the European M&A Atlas Awards saluting the top deals, deal-makers and firms from the European mid-market M&A community. The event took place at the Le Méridien Hotel in the heart of London and was attended by the winners and interested observers. Needless to say, IntraLinks was a winner and was awarded ‘M&A Technology Products Firm of the Year’. Obviously, everyone at IntraLinks was ecstatic about winning this award which is recognition of our contribution to assisting dealmakers across the entire M&A process. As my colleague Matt Porzio noted in a previous blog, it’s even more thrilling that we won the same award in Asia and the Americas too, a clean sweep in 2010 (click here to see the related press release).

Obviously, the main event in South Africa last year was the football World Cup. Although being English I’d rather forget about that and talk about a more recent event – The M&A breakfast briefing that IntraLinks and mergermarket hosted at the end of November. Held in the Michelangelo Hotel in Johannesburg, the event, titled “South African M&A: The Gateway into Africa”, brought together around 130 senior figures from the South African M&A community to listen to a panel of speakers discuss the key issues affecting activity in the region.

Moderating the briefing was the local mergermarket bureau chief Peter Cromberge, he was joined by Craig Forbes from the Corporate Finance Team at RMB, Kevin Cron director of corporate M&A at the law firm Deneys Reitz, Brad Webber joint head of M&A at Standard Bank and Philip Whitchelo the head of M&A strategy here at IntraLinks.

Hot on the heels of the announcement last month of which advisers will be used by the Russian government in its $60Bln privatization programme, IntraLinks sponsored the inaugural mergermarket Russian M&A Forum at the Marriott Royal Aurora Hotel in Moscow. The event brought together over 200 Russian M&A practitioners and leading industry figures to explore the deal making environment in Russia and discuss the outlook for the next twelve months.

In his opening address the mergermarket bureau chief Rob Hartley suggested that one of the main deal drivers in the coming months would be the government asset sale programme, however he also pointed to distressed M&A, inward Russian investment, rising commodity prices, the return of IPOs and consolidation in the banking industry as key drivers in what looks likely to be a promising year for M&A in the region.

In the first half of the year, we could all be forgiven for harboring a small degree of optimism. If you look at the global M&A market according to analysis undertaken for the first half of the year by mergermarket, there were announced a total of 5,062 deals worth around $883 billion, an increase of around 14% compared to the same period in 2009. That said we’ve also had the ever-present threat of double dip recession, governmental promises of austerity and the problems surrounding sovereign debt in Europe. So the big question is what does the next twelve months hold for the global M&A market?

Last month I attended the inaugural “Dealmakers of the Year Awards” at Scott’s restaurant in London. The event, hosted by IntraLinks with the support of the Mergermarket Group, celebrated the achievements of M&A practitioners who have excelled in their field during the past 12 months in spite the financial crisis and its dramatic effect on global M&A deal volumes.

Short listing for the event was undertaken independently by mergermarket using the mergermarket.com M&A deals database which tracks transactions where the value is greater than €5m. Financial advisors and lawyers qualified on the basis of advice given on transactions to UK-based corporations, targets, vendors and acquirers. Selection was based on both the total volume and value of deals advised on.