Entrepreneurs Vie at National Forum in Santa Barbara

Nine student ventures from across the country will take part in the Fourth Annual Spirit of Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development (S.E.E.D.) Collegiate Venture Forum at the Andalucia Hotel March 2-3. The opening luncheon, Friday, March 2, at 11:30 a.m., features keynote speaker Dr. Yulun Wang, founder and CEO of InTouch Health. Tickets are $50, and reservations are required.

Dave Newton, professor of entrepreneurial finance at Westmont, is founder and president of TechKnowledge Point, which launched the S.E.E.D competition to put top collegiate entrepreneurship business plans in front of a world-class panel of evaluators, early stage investors and product development specialists. Newton also started the entrepreneurship program at Westmont.

This year’s nine semifinal ventures are: Advanced Wireless Solutions LLC from Loyola Marymount University; AIDN Corporation from Johns Hopkins University with Yale and the University of Maryland; Ambient Corporation from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; BEM Synergy Inc. from Washington State University; DineSense Inc. from University of San Francisco; GeoNexxus Corporation from Carnegie-Mellon University; Lyons Air LLC from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; MAP*D Net Inc. from John Carroll University; and Phoenix Pharmaceuticals Inc. from the University of Georgia.

Following the opening lunch, venture teams will make their first-round presentations at 1:30 p.m. Judges will decide which final four teams will compete Saturday, March 3, at 8:30 a.m.
Space will also be limited for the popular S.E.E.D. Networking Banquet, Friday, March 2, at 6 p.m. The keynote speaker is Dr. John Couch, Apple vice president of global education marketing for iTunes U. Tickets are $95 and reservations are required.

The forum will close with a luncheon Saturday, March 3 at noon, next to the pool on the roof of the Andalucia. The keynote speaker is Ali Velshi, senior business anchor for CNN. Tickets are $50 and reservations are required.

One of the best and most experienced panels of screeners and judges in the country will participate in the forum. Judges are: Dan Corry, principal of Agility Capital; Susan Block, principal of Block, Bowman & Associates, Barry Fay, president of Aquaflo; Mark Palmer, president of InRoads Technology; Dave Odell, CEO of MedBridge Development; Ron Meritt, CEO of Meritt International; Dave Goldmuntz, Angel Investor - Santa Barbara; Dick Hale, principal of Hale-Estrada Associates; andStender Sweeney, managing director of Pasadena Angels.
This year, collegiate venture teams will utilize iTunes U as an additional medium through which to disseminate audio-video content-information about their business plans to S.E.E.D. reviewers and potential investors. These unique podcasts will be uploaded to Westmont’s iTunes U site in the weeks prior to the forum and will follow a S.E.E.D.-standardized 8-module format covering the eight key functional areas of the venture launch and ramp-up.

For more information, please contact Newton at (805) 455-7813 or by e-mail at info@techknowledgepoint.com.