The Broad China Business Society, or BCBS, will be holding the Michigan China Forum on April 24 in the Auditorium Room at the Kellogg Center.

Known as the Greater China Supply Chain Forum since 2003, the name of this year’s event has officially been changed to the Michigan China Forum.

The focus of the forum is on the comparison of business startups, technology and innovation in and between China and the United States.

BCBS president and finance senior and China native Xin Zhao, who has been involved with the BCBS since he was a freshman in 2012, said he has noticed several differences. And of these, Internet entrepreneurship is now a hot topic in China, Zhao said.

The organization’s official aim is to “develop a global network of elite business professionals,” according to the BCBS website.

With more than 4,500 Chinese students enrolled at MSU and many pursuing a degree in business or economics, the BCBS uses MSU as a place to meet and discuss global business trends.

“I don’t want to find out which business model is better,” Zhao said. “I want (to) find out why certain business models work in China and why different business models work in the U.S.”

Zhao and the BCBS have been in the process of setting this event up since December 2014 and have 10 speakers lined up from all different backgrounds, including Americans pursuing business in China and vice versa.

The goal of the BCBS is to make this an annual event and one that can grow to become as big as similar China forums currently held at Harvard and Cornell.

In addition to allowing for the comparison of American and Chinese business models, the forum will also allow for discussing the possibility of an international career fair at MSU, finance junior and BCBS Vice President Zhouxiaoxiong Qi said.

For the career fairs currently held at MSU, Qi said they aren’t always as beneficial to international students as they are to their American counterparts. This is because there are several complexities involved when American businesses attempt to hire international students. Many of these boil down to complications between companies and their limitations on curricular practical training and optional practical training.

So when Qi heard from a friend about the success of an international career fair held at another university, Qi and the BCBS have gone to work to schedule one at MSU. Currently the plan is to have one in either fall 2015 or spring 2016, Qi said.

“Nowadays, it is really hard for international students to find jobs, even internships in the U.S.,” Qi said in an email. “BCBS wants to collaborate with other school organizations and institutes to hold an international student career fair to provide not only the BCBS members, but also the whole international student group, opportunities to talk with professionals and discovering the potentials to be employed.”