Wednesday’s N.C. Foreign Trade Promotional Conference presented businesses a full plate of the “why” and “how” of engaging in foreign trade, along with the “who” of information and assistance resources.

Information at the event ranged from nuts-and-bolts explanations of international trade to tips on using federal, state and public-private resources to get started and remain successful in exporting.
 
This is the second year for the conference, which was hosted by the Foreign Trade Promotion Council at Cape Fear Community College’s Union Station and featured representatives from 10 trade-related agencies and numerous businesses and firms that are engaged in international business.
 
Keynote speaker for the event was Margaret Rosenfeld, honorary German consul of eastern North Carolina and a Raleigh-based international attorney, who shared her personal list of rules for dealing in international and intercultural business as well as her views on the future of globalization.
 
Communications technology has sped up the pace of international commerce, with mobile phones and Internet technologies like email and Skype, Rosenfeld said during her lunchtime talk, adding that social media tools such as LinkedIn are also helping business professionals make new international contacts.
 
Crowdfunding as a way for private companies to raise capital is much more established in some other countries, Rosenfeld said, noting that France is “five years ahead of the U.S. and North Carolina” in the use of crowdfunding.
 
Changing demographics play into the evolving landscape of international business, she said, citing increased urbanization around the world, with more than half of the world’s population now living in cities, up dramatically from 18 percent in 1950.
 
“This means a potentially more educated, higher-paid consumer base,” she said, adding that an expanding middle class in developing countries can mean new markets for U.S. companies whose products require a disposable income base.
 
As versions of Silicon Valley or Research Triangle Park are created in developing countries such as India, those hubs will need a more sophisticated technology infrastructure that American companies can provide, Rosenfeld pointed out.
 
Rosenfeld cautioned that, even with the great potential that foreign trade presents, U.S. companies need to expand in a measured way, diversify their international supply chains to ensure steady supplies if disaster strikes – as it did in the wake of the tsunami in Japan – and educate themselves about the cultures, languages and current political realities of the countries of their trade partners.
 
“You can’t assume you know what they’re thinking and what they know,” she said.
 
The conference’s panel presentations focused on introducing the federal, state and public-private entities they represent and how their organizations can help businesses embark on international commerce. Trade representatives from Germany, the U.K. and France were on hand to provide their perspectives.
 
The day’s first panel reviewed the planned 24-county Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) in southeastern North Carolina: how it will work, the benefits to companies of participating in it or linking with a magnet site and what’s involved in qualifying for participation. Officials hope that the FTZ, which will operate as an alternate site framework that makes it much easier for companies to qualify for participation, will get federal approval by early spring of 2015.
 
The three other panels introduced attendees to the various agencies that can help businesses engage in foreign trade through such services as counsel, financing and contracting.
 
Starting off the conference was a short presentation from James Ford, the N.C. Teacher of the Year, who spoke on the critical importance and changing nature of education as young people are prepared for a global economy.
 
“Our collective fate as a society will be determined by how we educate our children,” said Ford, a world history teacher in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools. “We must teach concepts, not just content, and help students find meaning in learning.”