ASEC (the Applied Services Economic Centre) is a consortium of researchers and practitioners in the field of services. It operates as a forum for open discussion and exchange of views on key topics, conducts studies and advises on services issues, and seeks to stimulate interaction among business, researchers, governments and officials of international organisations through seminars, conferences and other activities. ASEC is not committed to any particular point of view or commercial interest; rather, those associated through ASEC are brought together by the shared perspective that services increasingly underlie and drive national economies as well as the global economy. As a result, the challenges, the opportunities – as well as the risks and vulnerabilities – associated with services growth and development require careful study and informed discussion. ASEC is a non-profit organisation and attendance at the conferences is upon invitation only and free of charge. Likewise, speakers are not remunerated for their presentations, but receive some travel and accommodation assistance.

An overall monograph summarising and synthesizing the findings and results of the ASEC Services and Vulnerability Project, tentatively entitled Ensuring Against Risk and Hazard: Coping With Vulnerability in a 21^st Century World, is expected to be published in 2009.