On October 28, 2008, Stewart Kim of PGP spoke at a symposium on international business organized and sponsored by law firm Foley & Lardner LLP. Mr. Kim participated in the panel discussion entitled "Emerging Market Opportunities" and was joined by Joseph Pike of Akcess Consulting and Larry Stambaugh of Apercu Consulting. Mr. Kim and the other panelists focused their discussion on their experiences in forming joint ventures with Asia-based companies, as well as the challenges those newly formed entities often face in terms of management and financing. Many of the recently formed JVs between Asian and Western companies bring together a complementary set of technological and marketing attributes of the participants; however, the entities need to be properly structured to ensure that they enhance those attributes rather than hinder the ability of the jointly-owned entity to build a competitive business that can succeed in its markets. All of the participants on the panel shared anecdotal support to the notion that unless potential conflicts in management, information sharing and economic incentives are worked out at the outset between the two parties, their JV is doomed to underperform. On the other hand, the panel members argued that if the corporate partners are flexible in adapting to the local market and properly motivate managers who are experienced at handling cross-cultural business issues, the enterprise can exceed their original objectives.