Seminar to help manufacturers do business with China

The Erdman Center for Manufacturing and Technology Management at the UW–Madison School of Business will present a daylong program on doing business in and with China.

It will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 29, from 8:15 a.m.-3:30 p.m. at the Fluno Center on the UW–Madison campus.

Industry speakers from small and mid-sized U.S. manufacturers, with solid experience of interacting with Chinese manufacturing and government representatives, will participate. Speakers include Mary Linton, marketing manager of the Promega Genetic Identity Business Unit in Madison; Gene Berg, CEO and owner of Austin-Westran, Byron, Ill., and a frequent speaker on China; and Paul Fichter, president and owner of Taphandles, a Seattle-based company that manufactures products in the Chinese province of Guangdong.

Other sessions will focus on what managers need to know to cultivate business with China, led by Gongliang (William) Guo, Fujian, China, and vice president and general manager of Bergstrom-China; and the role of China in the U.S. and world’s economy, presented by John Eichenseher, professor of accounting and international business.

The program will end with a panel debate on the future of U.S. manufacturing in light of the threat from China. Besides the previous speakers, the panel will include Mary Regel, director of the Wisconsin’s Division of International Development and an expert on international trade. Moderator for the day’s event is Professor Urban Wemmerlöv, director of the Erdman Center.

Sponsors of this conference are UW–Madison Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER), Kraft Foods, Inc. and Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension Partnership (WMEP). Co-sponsors are the UW–Madison Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy (WAGE), the Small Business Development Center (SBDC), the Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship and the Wisconsin Department of Commerce-International Division.

For more information on the event, visit www.wisc.edu/erdman or contact the Erdman Center, (608) 263-2563 or ErdmanCtr@bus.wisc.edu.