On May 22 Bryant University held its annual World Trade Day, the 34th edition of a daylong conference for hundreds, complete with panel discussions and speeches that are focused on … world trade.
The notion at its heart is that Rhode Island is too small a market for any company to remain entirely local and prosperous at the same time. No matter your business, especially for manufacturers, growth will come only from finding new markets. And World Trade Day is one way that the state and the region can come together, brainstorm and find ways to build shared prosperity. [Note: PBN Editor Mark S. Murphy has been a panel host and moderator at a number of World Trade Days.]
But this World Trade Day was more than another in a long line of well-attended events. It was the first one without its founder and the former director of Bryant’s John H. Chafee Center for International Business, Raymond W. Fogarty.
Fogarty died suddenly on Sept. 27, and World Trade Day marked his absence by presenting him with the Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously. He will be missed.
