Hutchinson Law Group, iContact Among Sponsors for CED’s Venture 2009

Research Triangle Park, NC, April 11, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Joan Siefert Rose, president of the Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) (www.cednc.org), a private, nonprofit organization that promotes entrepreneurial efforts in the Triangle region of North Carolina, has announced sponsors for CED’s Venture 2009 conference, scheduled for Wednesday, April 22 and Thursday, April 23 at the Pinehurst Resort, located at 1 Carolina Vista Drive in the Village of Pinehurst. CED’s Venture 2009 is the nation’s longest running financing event, bringing together investment opportunities in the life sciences, cleantech and technology arenas with investors.

CED’s Venture 2009 will feature the most promising early and late stage companies in North Carolina and across the Southeast. Investors in four committees pre-screened more than 120 applications to select presenting companies. The top criterion for selection was “most promising investment opportunity,” and representatives of all of the major funds in North Carolina and the Southeast will attend, including Intersouth Partners, Pappas Ventures, HIG Venture, Noro-Moseley, Canaan Partners, Grotech Ventures and Wakefield Group. CED’s Venture 2009 marks the first public presentation this year for 30 of the companies presenting.

Headline Sponsors:
· Hutchinson Law Group
· iContact

Golf Sponsor:
· Square 1 Bank

Investor Dinner Sponsor:
· National Venture Capital Association

Presenting Company Sponsor:
· TechCFO

Happy Hour Sponsor:
· IDEA Fund Partners

Presenters Workshop Sponsor:
· Silicon Valley Bank

Breakfast Sponsor:
· Grant Thornton

Beverage Sponsor:
· Pepsi Bottling Ventures

Gold Sponsors:
· Business Leader Magazine
· Business North Carolina
· Black Diamond Capital Group
· Dow Jones VentureSource
· Ernst & Young
· Frontier Capital
· Harbert Venture Partners
· Hughes Pittman & Guptan, L.L.P
· Intersouth Partners
· Laser Image
· NC Magazine
· Noro-Moseley Partners
· Pappas Ventures
· Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson, P.A.
· Smith, Anderson, Blount, Dorsett, Mitchell & Jernigan, L.L.P.
· Triangle Business Journal

Silver Sponsors:
· Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione
· Canaan Partners
· Centice Corporation
· Chrysalis Ventures
· Deloitte & Touche
· Grotech Ventures
· Hatteras Venture Partners
· North Carolina Technology Association
· PhRMA
· River Cities Capital Funds
· Scale Finance
· SEBIO
· Six Disciplines
· Wyrick Robbins Yates & Ponton, L.L.P.

Other Sponsors:
· Preation Web Experts
· Hosted Solutions
· Business Wire
· T-Mobile
· Cranky Creative Group
· MMI Associates, Inc.
· Nair & Co.
· Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina

For more information about sponsors, visit http://cednc.org/content/sponsorship/337.

“We are excited to have many prestigious companies support our Venture 2009 conference,” said Rose. “We thank these companies for their continued contributions and support and look forward to a productive and informative conference.”

About the Council for Entrepreneurial Development:
The Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) is a private, nonprofit organization founded in 1984 to identify, enable and promote high-growth, high-impact companies and accelerate the region’s entrepreneurial culture. Headquartered in the Research Triangle Park, CED is the oldest and largest entrepreneurial support organization in the nation with more than 5,500 active members. CED provides know-how, networking, mentoring and capital formation resources to new and existing high-growth entrepreneurs through annual conferences, programs and web-based resources. CED has helped entrepreneurs, investors, service partners, researchers and public policy makers in diverse emerging industries and at all stages of development – from high-tech, production-based organizations to service companies, from one-person start-ups to 1000-person businesses. Visit www.cednc.org for more information.

Patty Briguglio
MMI Associates, Inc.
(919) 233-6600
patty@mmimarketing.com

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