Alibaba is hot: the company’s IPO on the New York stock exchange is the biggest IPO ever. Chinese companies such as Alibaba and Tencent are changing the way of doing business in China and it is expected that they will also be very well known names in the global business environment in the near future. How did Alibaba’s story start in China, what is really going on in the isolated e-commerce market and social media in China and how should we as European companies deal with this changing digital environment?

Horsten International and ChinaTalk are, with the support of the FCCC, co-organizing an inspiring China workshop on the occasion of the eTrade Summit in Brussels on Thursday 2 October (afternoon session). Please check for more information about the program at http://www.etradesummit.be.

Agenda of the China workshop:
13:30 – 14:30     Registration
14:30 – 15:00     Bart Horsten, Managing Director Horsten International NV: Introduction of the fast changing digital market in China and recommendations about how European SMEs should deal with these new market conditions when considering to sell their products on the Chinese market.

15:00 – 15:40     Ed Sander, Online & Database Marketing Specialist: Ed will explain how China’s Tencent has opened the fight against its long-year rival Alibaba by using its extremely popular chat-app “WeChat”. Ed will explain how WeChat works, what the applications are for the users and what it can mean for your company from a business perspective.
15:40 – 17:10     Exclusive Belgian Premiere of the documentary film about Alibaba “Crocodile in the Yangtze”; Porter Erisman – ex-Alibaba – Filmmaker. “Crocodile in the Yangtze” follows China’s first internet entrepreneur and former English teacher, Jack Ma, as he battles U.S. giant eBay on the way to building China’s first global internet company, Alibaba Group. An independent memoir written, directed and produced by an American who worked in Ma’s company for eight years, Crocodile in the Yangtze captures the emotional ups and downs of life in a Chinese internet start-up at a time when the internet brought China face-to-face with the West.

Venue: Event Lounge, Generaal Wahislaan 16/F, 1030 Brussels
The price for the afternoon session is €125 (VAT excl.)/person for FCCC members. The price for the whole day program is €209 (VAT excl.)/person for FCCC members. Please register at http://www.etradesummit.be/conference/register with the promotional code ‘HALFDAY’ before September 26, 2014.