What To Expect At the Fourth Annual Cross Border Summit
We are very excited to bring out the official blog post for our fourth annual Cross Border Summit. It will be a mix of “old and new” with some of the favorite parts coming back and new and improved enhancements.
What is the Cross Border Summit?
It is a conference to bring together top executives and experts in the China-export based B2C e-commerce community to discuss trends in the industry. When we talk a bout export B2C ecommerce from China, in 2019, that is a lot about Amazon FBA. We discuss topics about marketing strategies to build your product brand, new markets to sell in, preparing for big ecommerce selling days, VAT/tax optimization, and hearing case studies from others in the industry.
- Educate and update you on the latest international business trends. Specifically between China and the world
- Connect and network you with the top industry executives to grow your network and relationship base to stay ahead of the competition.
How Did Cross Border Summit Get Started?
This is a common question - it started with its first conference in April 2016 in Shenzhen, China. Why did it start in the first place? The podcast, Global From Asia, was getting a lot of requests from listeners to meet up in the South of China during the famous trade show season with the HK fairs and the Canton Fair. So, why not make it a “party” - and the first Cross Border Summit was born in Spring of 2016.
What Is Cross-Border?
Cross border is the act of doing business between two countries (borders). The act of having a seller in one country and a buyer in another (with an international transaction). We wrote up an extensive Cross Border business guide here.
What's the Deal?
So When and Where? Here's the quick gist:
Networking Here Will Be Like No Other!
We will have name tags so people can get to know each other more. You should also bring business cards so that you can network even more. If you need a private space to have a 1 on 1, we do have some smaller break out rooms where that can happen.
What Language is the Event In?
While we do this event inside Mainland China - the event is international and 100% English. In previous events Global From Asia has done we tried dual language (Chinese/English) but it wasn’t to our standard.
So the fourth annual Cross Border Summit will be 100% in English. If enough requests from the Chinese community, and additional fees are paid, we could hire simultaneous translators for English to Chinese translation.
We welcome the Chinese community to attend, but we have come to realize and accept our community is primarily utilizing and operating in the English language.
Watch The Official CBS 2019 Trailer
Watch the official Cross Border Summit 2019 Video Trailer: to get you a feel for the event - here’s a trailer showing clips from previous years
When and Where? Oct 22-23, 2019 in Guangzhou, China
One big update is we are moving the summit from Shenzhen to Guangzhou. The first three were in Shenzhen, China but based on feedback as well as proximity to the Canton Fair, we are taking it closer to the action.
It is a 2 day event, Tuesday Oct 22 and Wednesday Oct 23, 2019. This will be the day before phase 2 of Canton fair, and the first day of the Canton Fair phase 2. If you are a super fan, you can also purchase the CBS (Cross Border Summit) VIP ticket and attend our VIP mastermind on Monday Oct 21 and the VIP dinner.
The venue will be at the TIT Innovation Park in downtown, Guangzhou - near the Canton Tower. Plenty of hotel options for you to stay right near the action.
What Are The Topics? Who Are The Speakers?
The real power and special part of the Cross Border Summit is our amazing network of experts who come out to share with the attendees.
These are international experts in the industry and are passionate about sharing the top advice and input on what is happening in export B2C ecommerce, Amazon FBA, social media marketing, team management, and more.
You can check the speakers page and here’s a poster of the current lineup as of July 2019:
Will Tjernlund
CMO and CoFounder of Goat Consulting
Will is a notable figure in the e-commerce industry, speaking at conferences around the world, including the United States, Europe, and Asia.
Will started his career working out of his family's 80+-year-old manufacturing company with the goal of expanding the e-commerce and Amazon presence. The efforts by Will quickly made Amazon the number one sales channel for his family's business which now grosses tens of millions of dollars annually. Will
Danny McMillan
Host Seller Sessions
International Public Speaker & Private Label Seller
Danny is the host of Seller Sessions, the largest podcast for advanced Amazon sellers. A world renowned public speaker and veteran Amazon Seller, Danny is also the co-founder of DATAbrill. Working alongside respected algorithm expert Dr. Ellis Whitehead, DATAbrill manages PPC and advertising automation for 6, 7 & 8 figure Amazon brands.
He also works with Amazon in the UK to
Michael Hartman
Managing Partner of Innoventic
Michael has a long experience in Marketing and Finance with an MBA in International Taxation and with more than 7 years of experience in company formation in the US. In the past 5 years his focus has moved to Amazon, now being a well-known PPC and Amazon Scaling Expert.
Michael has been speaking at International Conferences in the past three years, bringing strategic knowledge in the Amazon Business field. Moreover,
Nate Ginsburg
Founder at SellerPlex, Partner at AMZ Pathfinder, Partner at SellerFlows
Nate built up his FBA business and sold for $1million in 2017. Since selling his business, Nate now offers services with his team to support other AMZ Sellers at SellerPlex. And has also become a partner in a growing array of ecommerce service businesses including PPC management business AZMPathfinder.
Nate is passionate about helping other entrepreneurs grow better teams and businesses. He also loves to practice yoga! Learn more about
Marc Roca
President, Alpha Rock Capital
Marc is an entrepreneur with 10 years of experience in online retail of collectibles and luxury goods. It was from these endeavors that he realized the ability of the internet to capture a market for traditionally low-demand niche goods and its potential for scalability. In 2017, he and his childhood friend Vedast decided to establish Alpha Rock Capital (ARC) which focuses on acquiring and professionalizing small to medium sized
Nathan Resnick
CEO at Sourcify
Nathan Resnick, a young entrepreneur, writer, and traveler, who has brought dozens of products to market, been a part of a lot of Kickstarter projects, write for a few different media outlets, and used to live in China. Is the CEO of Sourcify a platform that makes manufacturing easy.
Mikkel Thorup
Podcast Host at ExpatMoneyShow.com
A podcast host at ExpatMoneyShow.com, Mikkel Thorup is an Investor, Entrepreneur and has spent nearly 20 years travelling around the world visiting more than 100 countries including Colombia, North Korea, Zimbabwe and Iran.
His goal now is to help Expats generate additional streams of income, eliminate tax bill, and take advantage of offshore structures so they can travel the world freely and never have to worry about money again.
Andy Lee
Founder of eComm Universe | FBAulous Training Pte Ltd
Andy’s e-Commerce journey was distinguished by his ability to take it very serious in his own sales skills since young. He achieved brief fame as the youngest to hold the Singapore Flag at the Million Dollar Round Table in the United States when he was a Financial Advisor for an International Insurance Company. To this day, he insists he was trying to prove that age doesn’t matter
Rolands Petrevics
7 Figure Amazon Seller, Helium 10 Elite Member
Originally from Latvia, he moved to Taiwan in 2004 and since then involved in numerous B2B related online businesses - all of them related to industrial electronics and telecom & networking equipment.
By the end of 2016, he became an Amazon seller, proudly having one failed product--compression socks. Should he have stayed in a place familiar to him--electronics, he would have skipped having over 10 successful ones. In 2018, he
Paulina Masson
Founder of Shopkeeper (formerly AMZPing)
Paulina is a software developer and a serial entrepreneur. 2 years of selling on Amazon and 2 years of running a profit dashboard for Amazon sellers gave her an in-depth understanding of what makes a business profitable.
Paulina’s talks are always full of actionable tips, walkthroughs with screenshots and step by step instructions. She believes that most people enjoy clear visual action items, with useful takeaways they can immediately apply
Wilson Blues
Founder, Banana Works
With over 10 years of export B2C e-commerce experience from China, Wilson Blues is a veteran at the game.
Learning how to build an international e-commerce business from inside Mainland China, Wilson has a unique perspective as a Chinese business owner going global while also understanding the Western mindset and business tactics.
Meet Wilson At Cross Border Summit 2023
Jana Krekic
Founder of YLT Translations
With 9 years of experience working in the online language industry, Jana has done everything from foreign language business training to multi-language E-commerce. Having trained translators to cross-over and work and think as marketers, she is now enjoying developing that area to its potential as YLT. Jana has over 4 years of experience working with various 7 and 8-figure sellers.
Meet Jana at the Cross Border Summit 2019 in Guangzhou,
Ricardo Li
Founder & CEO Popeye Incubation
Former Director of eBay Shenzhen. He has abundant international e-commerce experience and is a renowned expert in the cross-border e-commerce industry in China. He has experience selling "both ways" both into China and abroad via a wide range of e-commerce platforms.
Kara Atchison
Owner, LoneStar Technology
Kara is an ex-Space Shuttle engineer who worked in the defense industry for many years before transitioning to the commercial world. At Texas Instruments, she supported clients in Asia with their software development and product design. Then, she transitioned to the calculator supply chain team to supervise development, testing and production at supplier factories in China.
In 2014, she formed Lone Star Technology in Taipei to assist companies of all
John Cavendish
Founder of Seller Candy
John Cavendish is a 7-Figure Amazon seller in both the USA and Europe, and Co-Founder of Seller Candy. John's vast experience owning and overseeing millions in sales on Amazon via his own brands, and his deep understanding of the Amazon Seller experience, led to developing the concept of Seller Candy. Providing the expert Virtual Assistant experience, delivered as a service.
Michelle Zhou
Managing Director of Wanb Express
▪10 years of experience in cross-border e-commerce and cross-border logistics companies
▪ Has worked for a well-known overseas consulting management company and purchasing director for the world's largest recycling project for used vehicles
▪ From consulting management, supply chain management, overseas purchasing, e-commerce operations’ career, Michelle accumulated a wealth of related experience, successfully founded cross-border e-commerce logistics solutions company - WanbExpress International Logistics
▪ Received overseas government support scholarships to study abroad
Zack Franklin
CEO of AMZ Kung Fu
Zack has ran two multi-million dollar companies in the last year and has spoken across China about Marketing, Amazon, and Sales. He currently is the Founder and CEO of AMZ Kung Fu which is a marketing agency aimed to help Chinese sellers in Shenzhen increase their sales and take their business to the next level.
Meet Zack At Cross Border Summit 2023
Clint Lazenby
Founder, Legacy Retail Solutions
Founder of Legacy Retail Solutions, a boutique consulting firm, designed to help companies succeed in their global retail ambitions in both ecommerce and brick & mortar. Legacy supports clients with key retailers like Walmart, Target, Costco and Amazon around the world.
Mr. Lazenby has over twenty years of experience working in large organizations developing business with strategic accounts domestically and internationally. He is recognized for bringing creative solutions to complex
Patrick Zhang
Founder StarMerx
Top Seller of Amazon, eBay, Aliexpress, Wish, Walmart, Lazada, Shopee,etc.
Ph.D.of Computer Science, University of Massachusetts, USA.
3-year in Microsoft USA and 1-year in Amazon-USA as software engineer and data mining engineer.
In 2013, he returned to China to start a e-commerce company, now StarMerx has a monthly sales of more than 10 million dollars. By the end of 2016, the company got financing of RMB45 million.
Meet Patrick At Cross Border Summit
William Lee
Maas Media Group | President, North America and Asia
William Lee shares knowledge and insights on how to use media buying to grow sales and get out of the walled garden!
He will be presenting at the Cross Border Summit 2019 on Leveraging Media Buys and Amazon DSP.
Daniel Fernandez
Founder AMZclever
Daniel runs an Amazon marketing agency that specialized in PPC.
An entrepreneur and expert in cross-border ecommerce, copyright, and marketing. Daniel has a wide-ranged skill-set that is built on the foundation of getting products into the hands of the end-user.
As an extensive traveler, for both business and pleasure, Daniel has a global perspective and with his well-traveled knowledge understands the ins and outs of supply-chain logistics, international trade, and going
Anthony Cofrancesco
Co-Founder, Director of Sales | Virtuous Graphics
Anthony Cofrancesco is a former Operations Manager at Amazon who quit his job in 2018 to relocate full-time to Manila, Philippines to help scale Virtuous Graphics.
Anthony is responsible for growing the company from 8 to more than 30 full-time creatives in under 8 months while also doubling revenue. Anthony is an expert in business development and client relations and has spoken on numerous occasions within the Amazon community including
Davide Nicolucci
Founder & Director Growth Hack Consulting HK
Davide Nicolucci is a professional Digital Marketer and Growth Hacker since 2010. His international career covers various projects with multi-million dollar ecommerce companies in Europe, North America and Asia.
In 2017, after working for 2 years with top Amazon sellers based in China, he opened the first Marketing Agency for Amazon Sellers in Hong Kong: Growth Hack Consulting HK LTD whose clients are 6
Gerard Nieuwenhuis
Founder, Betafresh
Gerard is an entrepreneur with 10 years experience in supply chain management, cross-border ecommerce and distributed teams.
He gained a global perspective through his extensive travels and has a deep understanding of the ins and outs of international trade, supply chain logistics and location independent teams.
Nowadays his company runs multiple B2C brands and offers supply chain solutions to retailers, ecommerce and subscription box companies globally.
Ino Topalović
CEO & Founder at Importano Sourcing Group
Ino started his career at a customs broker’s office back in 2002 in Europe after which he was involved through the years in different companies focused on manufacturing, logistics, sales and international sourcing. Since 2013 his heart lead him to move to China where he lives since with his wife.
His China career started in a major US Quality Assurance firm and his long-term experience there lead him to start
What Is The Agenda?
The agenda will be based on feedback from attendees to have longer talks and more question and answer time after each speaker. Here is the daily format:
* Start at 9:30am with a welcome speech
* Morning speaker sessions with a tea break in the middle.
* Lunch together for power networking with the amazing speakers and attendees
* Afternoon will have a couple more speaker slots to start things off
* Then will have an interactive panel
* Then a GFA favorite - round table sessions - this is where you can pick a table with an expert on a specific topic and meet others interested on that topic to get hyper focused discussions and contacts.
* 6pm the event will officially wrap up for the day, but we will have suggestions for networking after.
Repeat that format for day 2, and then the closing party.
Speaker Session Format
We will have the experts sharing knowledge and experience on the stage. 35-40 minutes of content and then 5-10 minutes of questions each speaker.
Panel Format
We will only have a few panels - we think this is a good way to focus on a hot topic and have the audience, with a panel host, engage experts in that industry.
Round Table Format
Again, we are certain you will enjoy this, but we will end each day with 2 rotations of round tables (learn all about round tables here)
The short story is - we take select speakers and other experts in the community and they will host a table for you to sit down and talk to them and others at that table.
The goal is to end each day with some amazing business cards that will make a real impact on your business.
Networking and Eating Format
We believe these events are really about making connections. So we want to make the most of the tea breaks, the lunches, and any other chance before or after the event.
After Party Format
We work with partners and sponsors on various after party styles.
VIP Mastermind Format
For those who choose the VIP mastermind option - you will have a pre-event on Monday Oct 21, 2019 form 2pm to 6pm with top speakers coming in. We make groups and have you rotate evenly amongst these experts so you can ask questions and learn from others. Extremely interactive and has always been a great value for those who opt in for it.
Sponsor Booths
Check out and discover services and offers for your e-commerce business at the sponsor booth section.
What People Are Saying About The Summit
Here are some testimonials from previous Cross Border Summit Attendees.
Having done three Cross Border Summits, plus a bunch of other international events, we have built up a reputation to bringing quality people, content, and networking under one roof. Here are a few video testimonials:
Kai Law Amazon Seller Aukland, New Zealand
“I had the pleasure of attending the Cross Border Summit early this year. I was super impressed by Mike and the whole team from Global From Asia put together. What you’ll get is a diverse range of speakers and attendees from around the world. What I got most out of it was the networking. After the event I was able to create a lot of business opportunities as well as friends. And that can be a very important thing when doing business in China and I found that hugely invaluable. So apart from that, I recommend attending next year’s event, I know I have it on my calendar.”
Vicky
“I’m Vicky and I’m from YKS Group.
My company is a cross border ecommerce business in China. It is my first time in Cross border Summit. First of all it is a great chance to know the different people from different countries. A good chance to know what foreign people think of China.“
Rolands
“I’m Rolands from Taiwan doing different b2b ecommerce trade. Here I’m get a lot of actionable information. The information is really that good that I missed the after party yesterday. I went to the hotel and implemented the ideas. Like Brian Tracy said is that you take action.
The Cross Border Summit has actionable ideas – that is the biggest takeaway.“
Daniel
“Hi I’m Daniel From Singapore Amazon Ecommerce seller. First time at CBS 2018. Excited to be here – Mike with me – asked me to say some words.
The event is great. Amount of content for the any ecommerce seller should come here, experience the content, the food, teh event. I have nothing but great words for Mike and his team and the amount of hard work they put into this event, see you at next year’s CBS 2019.”
Nick
“If you are interested specifically business in China, this is the right place for you. It’s actually worth your money.”
What Are the Ticket Options
We hope this sounds exciting - typing this up I am on the edge of my seat.
This is a premium event and we are focusing on quality over quantity. The venue has limited space so we suggest you lock in early - for early bird pricing but also for guaranteed seats.
Choose Your Ticket
GFAVIP Members
[ALMOST OUT] General Entry Pass
[SOLD OUT] VIP Pass
GFAVIP member and want a CBS VIP ticket - order here
Want to buy Group tickets and save? Learn more here
If you're a budding e-commerce startup and want to apply for a startup pass, you can fill out the form to apply here.
Thank You For Your Support For Cross Border Summit
Appreciate you taking the time to browse through what CBS has to offer.
We know many of our readers can’t make it out to China, but if you can recommend those you know who are coming to consider joining that has turned out to be a great way to help the event find quality attendees.
Cheers to all our success in global business and e-commerce.