Bosch Senior Quality Engineer Ben McCormick speaks with students at the 2nd Upstate Forum for European and American Business Oct. 21, hosted at Furman University’s Younts Conference Center. Photo by Owen Withycombe, Furman University.
Furman University hosted an array of international guests at the Younts Conference Center for the 2nd Upstate Forum for European and American Business on Oct. 21.
About 250 people attended the event, bringing business professionals to Furman’s Greenville, South Carolina campus to network with students, faculty, administrators and staff from Furman, USC Upstate, Greenville Technical College, Clemson University, Spartanburg Community College and The University of Georgia.
About 250 people attended the Upstate Forum for European and American Business Forum, which brought about 20 companies to campus to network with students. Photo by Owen Withycombe, Furman University.
Students ran the show, with Ilka Rasch, associate professor of German at Furman, enlisting her “German for the Professions” class to plan and promote the event.
“They helped design flyers, programs, table cards, badges, they helped with recruitment, logistics and served as moderators for the panel of experts and the roundtables,” Rasch said. “The day of the conference we got help from another 16 students from Clemson and Furman to run it.”
Zachary Jones ’26, a German studies and economics double major from Columbia, S.C., was helping guide guests into Younts for the event. He attended last year’s forum where he connected with Thomas Gösswein, CEO of energy company FENECON International, and landed an internship he hopes will become a post-graduate job in the summer.
“He spoke in detail about energy vulnerability and instability in Europe, especially as it related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” Jones said. “When else will you have a chance to hear a panel with the heads of multi-million or billion-dollar companies? They’re eager and will tell you what they’re looking for.”
Brett Owen, head of incubation at the North American Michelin Innovation Lab, shakes a student’s hand during a networking event at the Upstate Forum for European and American Business. Photo by Owen Withycombe, Furman University.
AI ethicist and author of “Responsible AI” Olivia Gambelin gave the keynote speech framing the day’s theme of how AI can benefit a workplace while enabling and empowering employees. After a break, business leaders from Bosch, BMW, Michelin, Burr & Forman and TD Bank presented a panel discussion on AI in the workplace, moderated by Furman students.
“A lot of our students care about this, but don’t know much about it, said Anna Bailey ’27, a German studies major from Hartsville, South Carolina. “It’s a genuinely fascinating topic and I think it benefits us a lot to learn about how major companies are using this technology now.”
Following the panel, students mixed and mingled with business leaders during networking roundtables, sharing their experiences and interests as they learned what these international businesses do and what they want from interns or new hires.
The colleges and Upstate companies were linked at this event through the European American Chamber of Commerce and Greenville Chamber of Commerce, Rasch said.