The idea for forming an international, industrial process engineering and design group arose out of a meeting held in Singapore in October 1995. In Dr. Ravi Kalakota's keynote address to the delegates and members of AAADE (Association of Austral-Asian Design Engineers), he presented his vision of future engineering companies linked by wires founded on a fledgling structure called the internet rather than bricks and mortar. His challenge to the assembled group was to consider the range of new opportunities open to the leaders of companies who embraced the multi-facets of electronic based commerce. There are some who say the most enduring aspect of those meetings was the coining of the term "e-commerce" as the descriptor of Dr. Kalakota's vision.