They are not trade show or conference executives, but David Jones and Jason Caplain have developed quite a knack for putting on events. The co-leaders of Bull City Venture Partners are putting on a venture capital preview event today in Raleigh – and it’s a sellout as usual with more than 400 people expected.

North Carolina is coming off its best year since 2000 for venture capital investments, having raised $675 million as WTW reported last week.

The BCVP venture preview has become a “must attend” for Triangle entrepreneurs and investors since Caplain and Jones bring to the region a mix of investors from outside of North Carolina as well as players in this area who are willing to share the highs and lows of the startup game.

WRAL TechWire chatted recently with Caplain about today’s event, which includes North Carolina Treasurer Janet Cowell and a host of other speakers.

  • The speaker lineup is strong as usual. what led you and Dave to select these speakers? What strengths in connections (and money) do they offer Triangle/NC firms?

As you know we put a lot of thought into the speaker lineup.

The panelists were selected for their strong interest in North Carolina and we made sure we provided balance between angels and venture firms that are interested in seed, early and growth stage opportunities. All the panelists are excited to be here.

(Note: See this interview with Middleland Capital.

(We should note that Caplain and Jones also work closely with the organizers of the Southeast Venture Capital Summit [SEVC] and the annual Internet Summit in the Triangle.)

  • The number of startups continues to swell in the region as demonstrated by the growing amount of startup space needed. Has this trend since then great recession ended exceeded your hopes for what the Triangle could generate?

We think this is great. And it is something we see in other geographies we cover too.

Like what’s happening here, we’re seeing space being created for startups in DC, Baltimore and Atlanta.

We think density is important. Its nice to be able to walk to grab coffee in downtown Durham and run into others from our entrepreneurial community. That is something that is newer for our region.

  • What’s your outlook for BCVP in 2016?

2015 was one of our most active as investors in the last 15 years. (The two remain active in Raleigh-based Southern Capital Ventures.)

We added four new portfolio companies AdWerx, Contactually, Medfusion and Spoonflower. That is on top of the follow on investments we made in the current portfolio.

We are still actively investing from BCVP III, which we closed during the summer of 2014.

  • How would you appraise 2016 – and why do you feel that way?

We expect Q1 to be much lighter than Q4 here in North Carolina, but overall the trends for the year should be positive assuming no macro changes.