Chinese Business Forum

Notes from Nancy

Did you know that 2010 is the Year of the Tiger? According to the Chinese Zodiac, the Year of the Tiger began on February 14, 2010 and ends on February 2, 2011. The Tiger is the third sign in the Chinese Zodiac cycle and is a sign of bravery. This courageous and fiery fighter is admired by the ancient Chinese as the sign that wards off the three main tragedies of a household--fire, thieves and ghosts. In honor of this occasion, the Detroit China Business Association held their annual New Year’s celebration in Royal Oak at Peking House with about 230 business guests attending from Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Beijing, Taiwan, Japan and Korea.

SEEN on the SCENE….
 
Speaking at the event were Bob Ficano, Wayne County executive; TianBao Zhou, chairman and CEO of the Tempo Group; Mingan Tan, executive director of the Detroit Chinese Business Association; Maomin Chu, vice consul general of the People’s Republic of China; Rick Synder, chairman of Ann Arbor SPARK; and Gary Peters of the Michigan House of Representatives.
 
The event was certainly the place to be on a recent snowy Friday in February for a great evening of networking and delicious Chinese cuisine. Enjoying the evening festivities were Bernie Pekor of the Detroit Regional Economic Partnership; John Brender of Wayne State University's Confucius Institute; Doug Smith and Charles Holmes of Oakland County; Noel Nevishier of Automation Alley; Jerome Hill and Jennifer Feng-Smith of China Bridge; Kevin McKervey and Tim Hilligoss of Clayton & McKervey; Tom Manganello of Warner Norcross & Judd; Scott Fleming of The Enterprise Group of Jackson, Inc.; Fouad Ashkar of the American Arab Chamber of Commerce; Tim Duncan of Link Engineering Company; Walter Zhou of the International Higher Education Exchange; and Hendrik Schuur of Allegiance Health. See the photos of your friends below….
 
We think the Year of the Tiger will be a good year for partnerships between China and Michigan businesses, so connect with TechTown's Soft Landings program to explore business opportunities in Michigan!
 
 
 
 
 

Notes from Nancy

If you didn't make the Chinese Business Forum on Tuesday, February 9 because of the impending snow storm, you missed a lively event. Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano led an energetic group of speakers who came to TechTown to talk about their experiences doing business in China and how to promote good relationships with Chinese companies. (You can read brief bios of the four speakers here.)

What made this a special event is that the four speakers have travelled together on several trade missions to China lead by Wayne County. They know each other well, and the audience benefited from their camaraderie and rich knowledge of the subject matter, namely, how to engage Chinese businesses here and in China. 

In addition to Wayne County Executive Ficano, the two-hour program and networking event featured Jerome Hill of China Bridge, Mingan Tan of the Detroit China Business Association and Te-Yang Soong of CTI & Associates. After their short presentations, the speakers took about 40 minutes of Q&A from the audience of businesses and professionals.

Hope to see you all again in May when we focus on understanding the people and culture of China and invite China Bridge to unveil their services!

Please feel free to send along any comments on how the programming in this forum could be useful to your company. Write to me at ncappola@techtownwsu.org.