Wednesday, May 1

7:15 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. Breakfast

7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Venture Capital Forum

Are your clients ready for equity investments? Come watch real-life incubator clients pitch their companies to our panel of venture capital professionals. Find out what it takes to secure the money your clients need as our panel critiques, advises and evaluates companies.

9:45 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Concurrent Sessions

Incubation from Zero to Sixty in Seconds!

Opening its doors only a year ago, the University of Toronto's IT incubator Exceler@tor is now 100 percent full. Still growing at hyper speed, it boasts a unique relationship with Canada's major research university, successful outreach programs and professional services, and partnerships with some of the world's best technology companies.
University / International / Technology
Steven Ilkay, Partner, Professional Services, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Andrew Maxwell, Managing Director, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Moderator: Lisa Ison, President, The New Century Venture Center, Roanoke, VA

Marketing Strategies that Work!

Explore ways to market your incubator to garner the support of the business community. Experts will help you understand your target market, establish market objectives and determine how to implement marketing activities whether your incubator is under development or open for business.
General
Joanne Randolph, President and CEO, BizTech, Huntsville, AL
Charles Stein, President, Strategic Development Services, Powell, OH
Moderator: Hope Player, Chairman of the Board, The New Century Venture Center, Roanoke, VA

Professional Development of Incubator Staff, Advisors and Service Providers — Roundtable

Skilled and dedicated incubator staff are necessary to build strong companies. Advisors, investors and other support personnel who mentor clients are equally important to the process. Join this roundtable to discuss how these players can hone their particular skill sets to ensure client success.
General
Mary Wilson Callahan, Principal Consultant and Founder, Work in Progress, Longmont, CO

Hirokazu Okumura, Special Advisor, JANBO, Tokyo, Japan
Jean-Francois Balducchi, President, France Technopoles Enterprises Innovation, Nantes
Cedex, France
Representative from Chinese Business Incubator Association, Taipei, Taiwan
Bob Waite, Director/Treasurer, Australian and New Zealand Association of Business
Incubators, North West Wales, Australia
Mary Spaeth, SWEDEPARK Swedish Technology Parks, Mjaerdevi Science Park,
Linkoeping, Sweden
JoAnn Rollins, Director of Membership, National Business Incubation Association,
Athens, OH
Hong Kim, President, Korean Business Incubation Association, Choongnam, Korea
Luis Bermudez, President, Brazilian Association of Science Parks and Incubators,
University of Brasilia, Brasilia, Brazil
Todorka Dimitrova Atanasova, Executive Director, Varna Economic Development
Agency, Varna, Bulgaria
Moderator: Claudine Schmuck, Associate Director, Global Contact, Paris, France

Pulling It Together

Established in 1967 with a mission to revitalize its East/Northeast Los Angeles neighborhood, CHARO Community Development Corp. is now a multipronged, multimillion dollar economic development program. Developing entrepreneurs and a workforce, CHARO coordinates and links wide-ranging, in-house services with those offered by strategic partners.
Revitalization
Cynthia Amador, Executive Vice President, CHARO, Los Angeles, CA

Taking the High Road to Software and E-Business Excellence

Scottish Enterprise Network (SEN) has created a national network of successful software/e-business incubators. Taking this experience and revealing new studies into account, SEN is setting out to brand its incubator network, standardize offerings and heighten program quality. This session offers lessons for national, state and provincial programs.
Technology / International
Roddy MacAskill, Senior Executive, Scottish Enterprise Network, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
John Meiklejohn, Managing Director, Strategem Ltd., Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
Mike Crawford, Project Manager, Scottish Enterprise, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
Moderator: James Graham, Director, Information Technology Resource Center, Louisville, KY

11 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Break

11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Concurrent Sessions

A View of Chinese Business Incubation

Business incubation from a Chinese point of view will feature experts from Hong Kong and elsewhere in China, along with colleagues from Taiwan and Singapore together at this roundtable session. Come explore entrepreneurship and new business development in a number of different Chinese societies.
International
Benjamin Yuan, President, Chinese Business Incubator Association, Taipei, Taiwan
Robert Lai, Director General, Small & Medium Enterprise Administration/MOEA, Taipei, Taiwan
Tang Fengquan, Deputy Secretary General, China Technology Business Incubator Association, People's Republic of China
Moderator: Susan Matlock, President, Entrepreneurial Center, Birmingham, AL

Biotechnology Incubators — A Different Breed

The explosion of life science knowledge continues to be great, with breakthroughs in human health, agriculture and the environment. But the needs of biotechnology companies are different from other companies. Join us to find out how to accommodate these differences through facilities design and scientific equipment.
Special Focus
Patti Breedlove, Manager, University of Florida Sid Martin Biotechnology Development Incubator, Alachua, FL
Elliott Eaton, Founder and CEO, Building Blox Solutions, San Fransisco, CA

Key Ingredients for Best Practices Rural Business Incubation

Does your rural community have the ingredients to develop a sustainable, best-practices incubator? If not, odds of failure are high. Hear lessons learned from recent NBIA research and the ingredients-including human resources, infrastructure and base economy-necessary for developing successful incubators without walls as well as networked and stand-alone programs.
Developers / Rural
Dinah Adkins, President and CEO, National Business Incubation Association, Athens, OH
Hugh Sherman, Associate Director, Voinovich Center for Leadership and Public Affairs, Ohio University, Athens, OH
Chuck Wolfe, Principal, Claggett Wolfe Associates, Auburn, CA

Making For-Profit Incubation Work Despite the Economic Downturn

Two international VC model incubators-survivors of the dot-com boom and bust-will reveal how their business models proved successful when many others failed. With ties to venture groups and top-flight business services professionals, these incubators also boast team members with deep experience starting new ventures.
For-Profit / International
Rick Nathan, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Brightspark Group, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Chris Raman, Chief Commercial Officer, GorillaPark, Gent, Belgium
Moderator: Sharon Gutauskas, Marketing Manager, Emerging Markets and Life Sciences, IBM, Markham, Ontario, Canada

Making Regional and National Incubation Networks Happen

Learn how a regional or national network can strengthen your program. Collaboration and cooperation with other incubators can help you tap into the corporate, academic and governmental organizations in your region. Hear from incubation professionals worldwide how others have benefited from strength in numbers.
Special Focus / International
Linda Kotzot, Managing Director, Pacific Incubation Network , San Jose, CA
Marie Lussier, Manager, CRC Innovation Centre, Ottawa, ON
Olga Lapteva, Director, Tambov Innovation Business Incubation of Regional Centre of Management and Culture, Tambov, Russia

1:45 p.m. to midnight

Niagara-on-the-Lake