The 2012 APCAC US-Asia Business Summit has come and gone but as Chamber members, we can truly be proud of the way our team – consisting of both volunteer leaders and ACCJ staff–produced and delivered an absolutely flawless event.
For those of us fortunate enough to attend the summit, we were treated to an incredible lineup of speakers and panelists. It’s hard to know where to begin, but just running through some of the names quickly, we had Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yukio Edano, US Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Nides, Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade Francisco Sanchez, Ambassador John Roos, Charles Lake (AFLAC), Ambassador Robert Orr (Asian Development Bank), John Rice (GE), Ambassador Hans Klemm (Economic Coordinator, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, US Department of State and US Senior Official, Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation), Ambassador Sung Kim (Korea), Hiroshi Mikitani (Rakuten), Ambassador Jeffrey Bleich (Australia), Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary McCarthy, Takeshi Niinami (Lawson), Assistant USTR Wendy Cutler, Lewis Kaden (Citigroup), Ambassador David Adelman (Singapore), William Toppeta (MetLife), Deputy Minister Dang Huy Dong, Planning and Investment Vietnam, Ambassador David Carden (ASEAN), Monika Merz (Toys R Us), Ambassador Paul Jones (Malaysia), Robert Eberhart (Stanford University), Ambassador Scott Marciel (Indonesia), Kevin Thieneman (Caterpillar), Ambassador David Shear (Vietnam), Commissioner Masamichi Kono (Financial Services Agency), William Stanton (Director, American Institute in Taiwan) and Japan’s Ambassador to the US Ichiro Fujisaki.
Actually, having run through that list of eminent individuals, I’d like to note that I’ve named only around half of the speakers at the conference! There’s just not enough room in this column to name every one of the distinguished participants. Being informed by so many uniquely qualified experts was really a remarkable experience. At one point during the conference, it occurred to me that we’d assembled what was probably the deepest and broadest array of participants from the US business community and government ever seen in Asia.
I feel as if I learned so much in those two days that it will take me weeks or months to assimilate it all. Our ability to make this event happen is really due to the credibility and reputation that the Chamber has earned over the last six decades.
Coming less than one year after the catastrophic March 11th earthquake, this event proved categorically that not only is Japan back in business, but that we’re one of the business communities providing leadership and vision globally.
From a Chamber perspective, we’ll be enjoying the benefits from this great event for years to come. In my concluding remarks at the conference, I said that I’d like to individually thank each ACCJ volunteer leader and staff member that contributed to APCAC but that I’d need an hour or more to do so. This column will be the second time I’ll once again issue a collective “thank you!” to all the folks that made the 2012 APCAC Asia Business Summit such a fantastic experience.
I hope that you’re all as energized and motivated as I am right now… and we still have nine months to go in 2012!
Thanks again.
