Some 70 top executives from a variety of companies learned about doing business internationally from experts in logistics, procurement and distribution during a two-day seminar Nov. 19 and 20 in Chicago.

The keynote speaker was James McGregor, a former executive with the Wall Street Journal and its parent, Dow Jones Co. McGregor, author of “One Billion Customers: Lessons Learned from the Front Lines of Doing Business in China,” gave advice on establishing operations in China.

“China is doing in 15 years what took 100 years to do in the U.S,” McGregor said.

He also noted the differences between China and India, another country experiencing tremendous growth.

“The Indian market is flooded with Chinese goods,” he said. “Democracy is what is holding this country together. China has embarrassed India and woken India up.”

He said China has gleaming new airports, modern highways and high-rise buildings, but India has the same look it had last century, albeit with state-of-the-art factories and a well-educated workforce.

“The reality is that China looks better than it is and India looks worse than it is. India will move ahead slowly,” he said.

The conference included a series of panel discussions focused on global distribution, logistics and purchasing.

Rhonda McGee, director of research for Reed Business Information's Boston Division, unveiled an exclusive survey of international business executives showing the tremendous increase in companies moving overseas. The study also identified emerging markets in places such as Vietnam, where Intel will build a $1 billion plant and employ 4,000 people.

The conference was sponsored by the Global Industrial Marketing Organization in conjunction with Reed Business Information, parent company of Industrial Distribution, and Thomas Associates of Cleveland.