Michael Webdell of Valparaiso, manning the Northwest Indiana Trade Council booth, talks Friday to Dodo Sudradjat and Tony Rachmad of the Indonesian Consulate General's office out of Chicago about international opportunities in trade during the Lake Region International Conference and Exhibition in Hammond.
'Import, export . . .'
Have to do both,
speaker advises
PUC conferees
HAMMOND - More than 200 people from around the world met at Purdue University Calumet on Friday to discuss and practice world trade.
A highlight of the daylong program was a luncheon addressed by four of the five business owners who received awards recently from the sponsoring Northwest Indiana World Trade Council.
The council was formed about 20 years ago to help area businesses find markets and supplies overseas.
"World trade is a two-way street. You have to import as well as export," said Carl Bowman at the luncheon. He is a sales manager for Bemcor, a Hammond company that both exports and imports and which won the Exporter of the Year award from the trade council.
He told how Bemcor imports forging equipment and exports its bar and billet shear, named Slugger.
"We also import supplies from Italy, France and the Czech Republic while marketing and selling machinery in Canada, Mexico and South America."
Honorees
- Exporter of the Year: Carl Bowman, a sales manager for Bemcor,
a Hammond company
- Bridges to Business award: Hugh McGuigan, director of the
International Center at Valparaiso University
- Richard M. Lund Ambassador Award: Carol Moore, owner of Laughing
Cat Productions of Munster
- Tai-Pan award: Chef Louis Retailleau, owner of French restaurant
Bon Appetit in Crown Point
- Jim Hartung award: David Springmann, operations manager of Okaya Electric America in Valparaiso
Moshe Z. Shoham, the Consulate General of Israel to the Midwest, gives a talk Friday at Purdue Calumet on international trade.
William B. Miller, trade council president who conducted the luncheon program, said that Bemcor also is closely involved with the nationally recognized Hammond Robotics Team, national winners of competition at the high school level. Hammond is the only team to repeat a win nationally and has appeared on national television programs.
Hugh McGuigan, director of the International Center at Valparaiso University, received the Bridges to Business award for his work with international students.
He said VU has 130 to 150 students from 50 nations in his classes and that they have found favor with local businesses as interns and employees.
Carol Moore, owner of Laughing Cat Productions of Munster, received the Richard M. Lund Ambassador Award for service to the council.
"My business is communication," she said. Moore told how she is involved in making training and marketing videos for local businesses, including trade council members.
Chef Louis Retailleau received the Tai-Pan award for his role in promoting French culture and cuisine at his Crown Point restaurant, Bon Appetit.
Retailleau told luncheon guests how he came from a small French town to Crown Point by way of Paris, Canada, New York, Chicago and Calumet City, Ill., and has operated Bon Appetit for 26 years.
Not present for the luncheon was a fifth award winner, David Springmann, operations manager of Okaya Electric America in Valparaiso. He received the Jim Hartung award, named for a former director of Indiana's International Port in Porter County and present director of the Port of Toledo.
A display area had material from local businesses as well as trade representatives from several nations in Europe and Africa.
The afternoon was filled with seminars on such topics as fundamentals of
exporting and networking and talks by a variety of speakers from Africa,
Ukraine, Czech Republic, Austria, Australia and Canada.
By Bob Burns
Post-Tribune correspondent
