Atlanta, GA -- EquityNet
showed its support for entrepreneurs by sponsoring the National Business
Incubation Association’s (NBIA’s) 26th annual International Conference on
Business Incubation on May 6-9 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Business incubation
programs facilitate the process of starting and growing companies by providing
entrepreneurs with the expertise, networks and tools they need to make their
ventures successful. NBIA estimates that in 2005 alone, North American incubators
assisted more than 27,000 start-up companies that provided full-time employment
for more than 100,000 workers and generated annual revenue of more than $17
billion. Approximately 7,000 business incubators operate worldwide.
"NBIA is an
excellent partner and is vital to our goal of market adoption among
entrepreneurs, business supporters, and investors," said Matthew Imhoff,
EquityNet VP of Business Development. "We are pleased to be a long time
partner of NBIA and we continue to look forward to years of future support and
increased collaboration between our organizations."
"We are pleased to
have EquityNet's support of and participation in NBIA's International
Conference on Business Incubation,” said Sheila Buckley, NBIA Director of
Development. “EquityNet's presence at the conference and continued support to
NBIA is greatly appreciated and we look forward to working with EquityNet this
coming year."
The four-day event in
Atlanta, Georgia, included more than 60 workshops and roundtable discussions,
exhibits, and tours of area incubators. The workshops offer targeted, in-depth
training to incubation and economic development professionals. Knowledgeable
incubation practitioners and other industry supporters lead the workshops,
providing strategies for effective entrepreneur support and techniques to
strengthen incubation programs.
NBIA choose EquityNet
President and CEO, Judd Hollas, to led a workshop entitled “Tools to Help
Clients Plan and Fund Their Business.” Mr. Hollas discussed and provided a
visual overview of nine software tools for business opportunity evaluation,
planning, and fundraising, including primary capabilities and utility, visual
examples, cost and usage characteristics, and appropriate client company usage
for each tool presented. Among the tools presented were Gust, Planet Eureka,
Invention Evaluator, and EquityNet.
In summarizing the“Tools
to Help Clients Plan and Fund Their Business” workshop, Mr. Hollas noted that
“an incubator manager must be well-versed in the latest tools to help entrepreneurs
with business planning and funding. This workshop introduced and characterized
software tools and online systems to assist entrepreneurs in everything from
business planning and modeling to investor prospecting and fundraising.”
The workshop “Tools to
Help Clients Plan and Fund Their Business” was attended by over 40 individuals,
including both experienced incubator managers and those who are new to the
field of assisting and supporting client companies.
The National Business
Incubation Association is the world's leading organization advancing business
incubation and entrepreneurship. Learn more about the NBIA conference here.