Editor’s Note: Jim Shamp is director of public relations for the North Carolina Biotechnology Center.
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – If your life science start-up is rolling in cash, you don’t have to pay attention to Friday night’s deadline to “come on down.”
But if you could use some funding help to commercialize a life science idea, you still have a couple of days to apply for a chance to pitch your company story to investors and colleagues at the 16th annual Southeast BIO Investor & Partnering Forum.
The extended deadline for signing up to present at SEBIO closes at 11:59 p.m. Friday, July 11. If your company is among those subsequently picked by a panel of judges, you’ll have a chance to determine if the “price is right” from interested investors at the Forum when it’s held November 11 to 13 at the W Hotel Midtown Atlanta.
The Southeast BIO event, co-sponsored by the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, provides a showcase for some of the most promising bioscience and medical technology companies in the organization’s seven-state region. Besides North Carolina, that includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
It gives executives of young companies picked by a selection committee of regional and national venture capitalists a chance to collect advice and investment.
Events set in stages
Companies can vie for a spot in the EARLY/Stage event if they’re seeking early rounds of investment. They participate in an individual private advisory session led by early-stage investors, entrepreneurs and experienced life science managers and service providers. Then the judges pick several finalists to present to the full conference audience. From them, an overall winner is announced at the closing lunch.
Another group of participants, dubbed MAIN/Stage presenting companies, have generally completed at least one round of institutional financing. They each make a 10-minute pitch to the full conference audience.
There is also a BIO/Plan competition in which presenters outline their business opportunities to the audience and to a panel of celebrity judges.
More information is available on the SEBIO website or by calling Suzanne Cantando at (919) 272-4391.
(C) N.C. Biotechnology Center
