Parallel Sessions

Parallel Sessions - 1 (Meeting Room 1-4 and Ballroom)

Dynamic Changes of SMEs in Asia

This session will examine the possibilities for SME growth in Asia under the progression of globalization. Issues on Asian SME bottlenecks and SME promotion policies in keeping up with globalization will be discussed. The session consists of comparative studies among Asian countries to investigate the common phenomena.

Franchising and Beyond as New Business Creation Tools

To foster entrepreneurial society, each economy has to increase the ratio of entrepreneur per population. Until now, one of the most important tools for business creation is franchising. This session will evaluate strength and weaknesses of franchising as business creation tool. It will also discuss increasing role of cultural dimensions in international franchising. More importantly, it will attempt to explore whether there are any emerging new business models capable of accelerating new business creation rate.

Commercialization of Research and Development for SMEs

This session will offer a comparative view of how nations implement incentive structure to foster industry-academia partnership together with various difficulties facing innovative SMEs during the start-up and growth period.

Market Cultivation: Roles of Entrepreneurs

To exploit the challenging opportunities in regional and global trades, SMEs need to seek adaptability and create an effective framework to achieve stable business expansion into these highly-competitive target markets. This session examines market cultivation as business competition-relevant factor and underlines the various roles entrepreneurs need to play in implementing market cultivation strategies.

Parallel Sessions - 2 (Meeting Room 1-4 and Ballroom)

Roles of Trading Firms in SMEs Trade: Strengths and Limitations

This session discusses the roles of trading firms in supporting SME trade. A trading firm network can stimulate SME internationalization , as in many cases they optimize SME product variation and brand licensing, and encourage effective inter-company management of human resources. Moreover , trading firms take important roles in selecting standard quality SME products, which help establish SME credibility in the international market.

Searching for Global Outsourcing Opportunities

This session highlights various channels for SME global outsourcing, both in the areas of production and services. Outsourcing professionals from the world's leading outsourcing businesses will share experience on global outsourcing strategies and best practices to facilitate knowledge exchange among relevant professionals and industries.

Young Entrepreneurs

Young entrepreneurs, with their fresh entrepreneurship capacities, are one of the most dynamic business forces. This session gives a ‘peer to peer' opportunity for the audience to connect with energetic, forward-looking, and successful young spirits who will share experience on how they create and manage their business, and disclose their secret on how they have become successful so early.

Parallel Sessions - 3 (Meeting Room 1-4 and Ballroom)

Managing Market Risks for SMEs

International market risks facing SMEs are mainly associated with aspects of equity, interest rate, currency, and commodity. This session addresses public SME support policies for the management of market risk resulting from both internal and external factors. To deal with their possible consequences , government's plans need to be carefully formulated to ensure a proper continuous risk management process. The general concept on Corporate Social Responsibility and different patterns of risk management will be shared in this session.

Venture Capital for SMEs: Global Trend

This session discusses the global trends on venture capital financing and its developmental implications on the fast-growing SMEs in their different stages of development. It will specifically focus on venture capital instruments, liquidity management , equity investments, and terms of funding . Governments' roles in support of venture capital funding will also be investigated.

Women Entrepreneurs Forum

Women entrepreneurs represent half the economic force; thus, unleashing their full potential and resources is a crucial milestone toward successful economic development. This forum addresses the women role in the global economic dimension, challenges facing their businesses, and gender-based disparities that impede women professional contributions to the economy. Importantly, the forum provides models for the formulation of gender-informed policies , and other implementations to promote more recognition for women entrepreneurs. It is an international ‘female bonding' platform where they can exchange views on entrepreneurial issues affecting their livelihood.