SALT LAKE CITY, UT, USA - This month World Trade Center Utah hosted a tech seminar at Adobe in Lehi, Utah focused on how companies can ‘Take Utah Tech to the World.’ More than 170 Utah business leaders attended the event. 

The seminar kicked off with a fireside keynote by Ryan Smith, founder and CEO of Qualtrics, which was moderated by Owen Fuller, co-founder of Boombox. The two tech gurus discussed the importance for software and tech companies to grow internationally. 

When asked what he would have done differently in his own global expansion, Smith remarked, “We could’ve done a lot more around the brand, around testing different models in different markets.” 

Following the keynote, World Trade Center Utah President and CEO Derek B Miller moderated a panel of exporting experts. Specialists included Cody Broderick, founder and CEO of inWhatLanguage, Carl Adams, partner at Alta Ventures, Craig Parry, shareholder at Parr Brown, and Don Willie, managing director of the World Trade Center Utah. 

The panel focused on the importance of adapting products to new markets, finding resources to begin exporting, and identifying rules and regulations related to entering a foreign market. 

During the discussion, Broderick stressed the importance of making sure communications comes across clearly, no matter what culture a product is moving into. He stressed that attendees should always work with a company that “knows how to protect your brand and enhance it in foreign markets.”

In a similar tone, Craig Parry cautioned against entering markets without a complete legal understanding of foreign copyright laws. He shared an example of a Utah company that thought they were licensing their brand to an in-country producer, when in fact they accidentally sold the rights of their brand to local distributors. “The local distributors owned the IP for Europe, and the headquarters had to buy it back at a blackmail-type rate.”

Attendees left with the message that there are countless opportunities available to them if they expand abroad. Foreign cultures and laws may be difficult to adapt to, but the benefits of product growth and extended longevity are worth the initial difficulties.

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