Press Releases
Contact: Anne
Hutchison |
919.549.7500
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Triangle Entrepreneurship Celebrated at CED's 2001 Annual Meeting
Innovation to Impact Initiative Unveiled
October 10, 2001, Research Triangle Park, NC - Even given current uncertain economic times, the state of entrepreneurship in the Triangle appeared strong and flourishing at the Council for Entrepreneurial Development's (CED) 2001 Annual Meeting - Innovation to Impact: Leading Entrepreneurship. More than 300 entrepreneurs, investors, and others interested in the local high-growth economy attended the event held Tuesday evening at The Carolina Club in Chapel Hill to reflect on the past history of entrepreneurship in the Triangle and look towards the future.
During the evening's program, CED unveiled its Innovation to Impact strategic initiative, a five-year undertaking that fuses innovation, leadership and resources to build a Research Triangle rich in opportunity and entrepreneurial impact. To successfully implement this vision, CED has already received commitments of over $1.3 million in its $3 million campaign. Through Innovation to Impact, CED will undertake the following:
- Provide a wider and deeper set of services in the areas of management and leadership development, especially to companies farther along in their life cycles.
- Engage government, civic, academic, corporate and technology organizations for both the delivery of entrepreneur-oriented services and programs and for regional positioning, promotion, and message-shaping.
- Expand the pipeline of potential high-growth companies by actively encouraging their development in traditionally under-represented areas and groups.
Current contributors to Innovation to Impact include: Daniels & Daniels, P.A.; Financial Directions of the SE, Inc. and Lori Spivey; Hughes Pittman & Gupton, L.L.P.; Hutchison & Mason PLLC; Inspire Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Intersouth Partners; Kennedy Covington Lobdell & Hickman, L.L.P.; Kilpatrick Stockton LLP; Maupin Taylor & Ellis, P.A.; Mission House Creative; Peyton and Maria Anderson; Smith, Anderson, Blount, Dorsett, Mitchell & Jernigan,LLP; Smith Helms Mulliss & Moore, L.L.P; Strategic Technologies, Inc.; The Aurora Funds, Inc.; The Business Journal; Wakefield Group, L.P.; Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC; Wyrick Robbins Yates & Ponton LLP.
Inspire Pharmaceuticals and POZEN co-sponsored the Annual Meeting; additional sponsors included Cassell Design Group, Digital Curve, and Presentation Strategies, Inc.
Other program speakers included Jim Cain, president and chief operating officer, Carolina Hurricanes; Monica Doss, CED President; Kip Frey, CED chairman; and Steve Nelson, CED chairman-elect. CED also unveiled results of its 2001 Entrepreneurial Excellence Survey.
About CED
The Council for Entrepreneurial Development, located in Research Triangle Park,
NC, is a private, non-profit organization formed in 1984 to stimulate the creation
and growth of high-impact companies in the greater Research Triangle region.
CED provides education, mentoring and capital formation resources to new and
existing high-growth entrepreneurs through annual conferences, seminars, workshops
and monthly programs on entrepreneurial management and finance. CED is the largest
entrepreneurial support organization in the nation with more than 5,000 members
representing 1,300 entrepreneurial companies, financiers and professional firms.
www.cednc.org