Southeast Venture Conference Casts Wide Net For Presenting Companies

Staying true to its name as a “southeast” event, the Southeast Venture Conference disclosed 15 companies from across North Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Virginia as its initial selections to present at the two-day event.

A sell-out crowd of some 400 people is expected to turnout for the conference on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 at the brand-new Umstead Hotel & Spa in Cary.

And more companies are to be announced shortly.

“We will have 25, 26, maybe 27 companies,” said Eric Gregg, the publisher of the Tech Journal South who also is running the Southeast Venture Conference. “We will have more companies from around the region.

“That’s one of our missions. Since close to 80 percent of the venture capital investment comes from outside the southeast, we really reached out for companies beyond North Carolina. We’ll have companies from Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, perhaps South Carolina and maybe Alabama.”

While most companies picked may be from North Carolina, Gregg said the event already is demonstrating its appeal by attracting investors representing more than $17 billion in venture capital.

“The event is here, but this is a regional event,” he said. “We didn’t want to call this a southeastern conference in name only.”

The selection committee for the conference also is looking to bring in more developed companies rather than startups.

“We have some early-stage companies, but we’re a little skewed toward later-stage companies,” he said. “That’s based on what the investor community was telling us they would like to see – more companies that have proven marketability.”

Some companies were actively recruited by the selection committee to present at the event. Others were picked after going through an application process, Gregg said.

The first companies selected to present at the conference are: