By all accounts, Zimmermann and Travel Michigan are doing an outstanding job in building and promoting Michigans powerful tourism industry. During his tenure at Travel Michigan, Zimmermann helped launch the Pure Michigan branding campaign, which has continued to earn national recognition. During his Economic Club appearance, Zimmermann will discuss the Pure Michigan brand and the status of the campaign today, including its expansion to include economic development and business initiatives including Pure Michigan Business Connect and Pure Michigan Talent Connect.

Speaker Fred Keller8:30am Morning Seminar 12noon Lunch Keynote $35 Registration fee (includes lunch) An engineer by trade with decades of international business experience and a passion for sustainable business practices, Fred Keller, Chairman and CEO of Cascade Engineering, will present our keynote address. Our morning seminar will feature a panel of experts and experienced businesspersons around various topics of sustainable business practices, including: -Christine Spitzley, Senior Environmental Programs Planner, Tricounty Regional Planning Commission -John Bradburn, Manager of Waste Reduction Efforts, General Motors -Joseph Hotchkiss, Director, MSU Center for Packaging & Sustainability -Steven Safferman, MSU Bioenergy Systems & Agricultural EngineeringThe Global Business Club of Mid-Michigan focuses on global issues of interest to the mid-Michigan business community. The monthly GB Club luncheons provide outstanding speakers and relaxed networking opportunities. With extensive international experience, the speakers wrap personal insights around a practical and up-to-the-minute approach to conducting international trade.

The Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce Economic Club is pleased to announce that Patrick J. Kennedy, former U.S. Representative turned national mental health advocate, will keynote the March luncheon held Tuesday, March 26. Kennedy, 45, is the youngest child of former U.S. Senator Edward Ted Kennedy.Kennedy is being brought to Michigan by the Hope Network to advance the statewide conversation about the importance of integrating mental and physical health. The announcement of Kennedy, who openly discusses his personal struggles with mental illness, coincides with Hope Networks intention in 2013 to advocate for increased public access to mental health care.In his Lansing Regional Chamber Economic Club address, Kennedy will address why mental health care is not only a major social issue, as over 50% of Americans will suffer from mental illness at some point in their lives, but also one of the most important economic issues, as the indirect cost of mental health illness due to lost productivity in Michigan is estimated to be over $4 billion. Kennedy will discuss how healthcare systems in states like Michigan can lead the way in changing how healthcare is delivered.

Academics, industry, government, and individuals are confronted with an explosion of data. The data increasingly are emerging from sources such as Web traffic, social networking interactions, search behavior, sensors that track suppliers, customers and shipments, and GPS systems that monitor traffic, to name only some of the more visible sources. This trend, often referred to as the age of big data, is pushing the world toward data-driven discovery and decision making. This abundance of data presents both opportunities and chal¬lenges. To solve some of the analysis issues with todays data, this one-day workshop provides an introduction to PLS Path Modeling. Participants will learn how to apply PLS Path Modeling by means of the SmartPLS software. The seminar contains several SmartPLS examples and exercises. We suggest you download the free SmartPLS software (www.smartpls.de) and install it on your computer, and then bring the computer to the workshop to participate in running the sample problems.The workshop is designed for faculty scholars, doctoral students, and marketing research professionals who are engaged in, or interested in, current techniques to perform Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) using PLS Path Modeling. Christian Ringle and Marko Sarstedt will lead the workshop, authors of the recent Sage book on PLS. Ringle is also the lead creator of the SmartPLS software (which is used by more than 45,000 professionals worldwide).

Professor Wernerfelt has been a thought leader on various strategic management, economics, marketing, and management science topics for decades. His work on the resource-based view has set the tone for numerous studies and advances across many business fields (see Wernerfelt 1984, Strategic Management Journal). For this invited research presentation, Wernerfelt will focus on issues that he presented at the Copenhagen Business School recently when they awarded him an honorary doctorate. Specifically, his presentation titled Small Forces and Large Firms: Foundations of the RBV is a synthesis of several papers he has written since the publication of A Resource-based View of the Firm (Wernerfelt, 1984). The starting point is a very small force: The reduction in bargaining costs when several bargains are pooled into one. He shows that one can construct a theory of the firm based on this force and defend the theory by arguing that it makes predictions consistent with several stylized facts. In addition, the theory suggests that firms should decide on their strategy and scope based on excess capacity of productive resources – exactly like the RBV. More on Birger Wernerfelt can be found at http://mitsloan.mit.edu/faculty/detail.php?in_spseqno=41242)

JAMS Editor Tomas Hult will be at the University of Massachusetts April 11-12 to give a research talk and a presentation on publishing/JAMS.

Sparks will provide an overview of the natural gas industry and discuss many of the changes in recent years that have led to an increased energy supply and lower costs. He will also discuss Consumers Energys natural gas infrastructure, and how it enables Consumers Energy to pass on these lower natural gas fuel prices to its customers. Sparks has overall responsibility for daily energy supply operations, including natural gas and electricity purchasing and delivery. He previously was the director of fossil fuel supply and oversaw the procurement and transportation of fuel for the utilitys fossil-fuel generating plants. From 2001 to 2006, he served as director of electric system planning and protection and was responsible for the relay protection and planning of the utilitys high-voltage electric system. Before 2001, he held increasingly responsible engineering and management positions in the electric system operations and electric transmission areas. Sparks joined the company in 1990 as a graduate engineer who handled electric system, bulk power substation, distribution substation and customer substation planning for western Michigan. Sparks graduated from Michigan Technological University with a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering. He also received a master of business administration from Western Michigan University. Sparks is a registered professional engineer with the state of Michigan and a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Speaker Mr. Ning Shao, Director, Michigan China CenterChina is the third largest export market for the U.S., and China is Michigans third largest export market, with $3.3 billion in export sales last year. Michigans exports to China grew 21% from 2011-2012; is your business part of this growth? Mr. Ning Shao will present a brief history of Chinas reform over the past 30 years and Chinas five-year plan, and why they matter to Michigan. He will cover eight lessons for doing business in China, as well as potential business opportunities and challenges in China for Michigan businesses.The Global Business Club of Mid-Michigan focuses on global issues of interest to the mid-Michigan business community. The monthly GB Club luncheons provide outstanding speakers and relaxed networking opportunities. With extensive international experience, the speakers wrap personal insights around a practical and up-to-the-minute approach to conducting international trade.

Coface Country Risk events focus on the outlook for business-to-business trade around the world. Attendees include companies, banks, academics, and professionals from the international trade community.

The JAMS Editor will be at the AMS Annual Conference in Monterey, May 15-18, participating on meet the editors panels, presenting the JAMS best paper award, and more