Conference To Encourage Asian Investments & Entrepreneurship

Four-Day Conference Nov. 19-22 at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido will be presented by the Asian Heritage Society and County of San Diego and hosted by San Diego County District 3 Supervisor Dave Roberts. Major participants include CONNECT of San Diego, North San Diego Business Chamber, San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation, Alliant International University, SDG&E and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles.

Video games, drones, sensor technology, virtual reality  and paper-less paper – all investment possibilities – will be some of the topics explored in the first-of-its-kind conference to take place Wednesday-Saturday, Nov. 19-22, 2014, at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido, San Diego County, California.

“Make It In America: Boosting Possibility Through Innovation and Entrepreneurship” will also focus on latest advances in stem cell research, nanotechnology and other medical applications and how to market  to millennials, as well as how to do business in America and Southern California. The twofold aim of the conference is to spotlight San Diego as THE hub of innovation for the future and to focus on investment opportunities for businesses here and abroad, particularly from China, Vietnam and Thailand. While Asian participants are invited to consider America’s potential for investment, regional businesses are invited to attend to raise awareness about what they do, meet potential partners and investors or gain additional insights on improving their products or industries.

“The goal of this three-and-a-half day round of activities is to bring together like-minded innovators and investors to generate new product or industry in the most lucrative market in the world,” said Supervisor Roberts.  “Even though your business may be elsewhere, you will understand the purchasing power of this market and learn how to reach it effectively,” added Rosalynn Carmen, president of the Asian Heritage Society, which is producing the conference with the county.

The conference is not related to President Obama’s Make It In America Challenge, which seeks to rebuild the manufacturing sector of our economy. Carmen said that program is not enough.

“If anything, the last two decades should have taught us that we can’t bring back those repetitive blue collar factory jobs that eventually will be replaced by robots and machines. We need a paradigm shift. We can wait for the standard of living and incomes in these countries to rise so that it’s less expensive to do it here again, or we can evolve to the next stage by building a platform that combines the diligence and tenacity of Asia and the freedom and creativity of America. That’s the paradigm shift that our ‘Make It In America’ conference is all about.”

Immigrants have always been an integral part of America’s success story, and Asian immigrants or descendants  of immigrants will play a major role in the conference, according to Carmen, adding that it was this mixture of Asian tenacity and the American freedom of spirit that propelled her 12 years ago to launch the first English-language publication for Asian Americans in California – ASIA, the Journal of Culture & Commerce –  follow it up with the prestigious Asian Heritage Awards two years later and Make It In America this year.  That Asian spirit will be shared in a special panel presentation “A Hero and Heroine’s Odyssey,” in which Asian American achievers, including San Diego’s first Asian elected to office, Tom Hom, share their success stories. That panel is scheduled for Thursday at 2:15 p.m.

Other topics include:

• Surfing the New Wave of Discovery – how musical innovation can change our view of the world, 2:15 p.m. Wednesday;
• How to Mine Opportunity in  “America’s Finest City,” 9 a.m. Thursday;
• Making EB5 work for you, 2:15 p.m. Friday;
• U.S.-China relations, 2:15 p.m. Friday, with Confucius Institute’s Lilly Cheng;
• The Power of Female Entrepreneurship, 1 p.m. Saturday, led by author and professor Dr. Louise Kelly;
• Engaging New and Old Pandemics – Ebola, AIDS and Hepatitis B, 10:30 a.m. Friday, with Dr. Flossie Wong-Staal;
• Life After Globalization – how to bounce back from layoffs and outsourcing, 1 p.m. Friday, with Marissa Pei, the “Asian Oprah;”
• China: The Elephant in the Room, 11 a.m. Saturday, with documentarian Peter Navarro.

“Creativity is in the DNA of America,” said Carmen.  “Somebody told me once that some day somebody is going to figure out how to suck the pollution out of the sky and sell it. Well, that’s being done right now,” added Carmen, referring to Newlight Technologies from Irvine, which has been invited to demonstrate how they take carbon dioxide and transform it into a saleable commodity — plastic. “This is the kind of innovation we will spotlight in our conference,” she added.

Anyone interested in attending or hosting a booth is urged to register at makeitinamerica.net .

Media Contact:         Barbara Metz, Metz Public Relations 858-677-0720 metzpr@gmail.com

Len Novarro, Asian Heritage Society, event@asianheritageawards.com