Saturday, June 03, 2000

Venture capitalists to mingle with e-start-ups at conference

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By John J. Byczkowski
The Cincinnati Enquirer

        A high-tech conference next week in Lexington will try to build bridges among entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in the region to pool resources for start-ups.

        “If we work together in a network, we can do more for these (start-ups) and cross-pollinate our deals,” said conference organizer Rick Baker, chief executive officer of eCorporation, a Lexington business incubator. “It should really show up on the radar screen of the Goldman Sachs and the Morgan Stanleys of the world.”

        More than 300 have signed up to attend the Silicon Central eConference. It targets start-ups, venture capitalists and other business development people.

        “Every single company we've met with — and Cincinnati is a key — no one thinks this is a bad idea,” Mr. Baker said.

        Three Cincinnati companies — inyourimage.com, EduLab and eSportsClinic — will pitch to venture capitals at the conference. Two local investmentcompanies will also be there: River Cities Capital and Blue Chip Capital.

        The Tuesday morning session of the conference will be broadcast live from the conference's Web site, www.sceconference.com, at 8:30 a.m. That morning's presentations will include talks by management guru Tom Peters and officials from the University of Kentucky and Oracle Corp.

       

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