After spending time last summer examining who its customers are and talking with a diverse group of people, the Council of Entrepreneurial Development (CED) says it has decided to can its annual Money & Markets conference.
The event provided entrepreneurs with information and resources about financing, exit strategies, securing investors and creating value. The event typically takes place in early February.
“Two years ago, everybody had a fairly similar funding path,” says Monica Doss, executive director of the CED. “What we’ve found is that the funding models are so diverse right now that we didn’t think the conference format was the best way attack this chunk of knowledge [regarding finance].”
Doss says the organization is looking to deliver knowledge in more “bite-sized chunks” so that information would be less general and tailored more specifically for certain groups of entrepreneurs. Some bootstrapped companies may be focused on securing Small Business Innovation Research grants, while others are seeking traditional venture capital financing.
For example, says Doss, in mid-August the CED hosted a boot camp for life science companies that may potentially go public in the next year. “It was a small-group environment with bankers from New York, and no service providers,” she says.
Research conducted by the CED also indicated that entrepreneurs were less willing than before to commit to an all-day conference, since many budding entrepreneurs also have separate day jobs.
As a result, the CED is launching in 2004 Engage, a series of half-day programs, as LTW reported earlier this week. The format will include a keynote speaker, panel discussions and workshops and a networking event. But Engage isn’t replacing Money & Markets; it will target a number of different topics beyond finance.
Doss says Engage will be more affordable for entrepreneurs, provide more return on their time investment and give them the option to pick and choose the programs they’re interested in.
Doss adds that Money & Markets was a profitable conference that did well and made money.
CED: www.cednc.org
