By James McNair
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Capitalism will be in full bloom at a two-day conference beginning today in downtown Cincinnati.

About 300 people are expected at the Innovest conference at the Westin Hotel. Thirty startup companies will be looking for investors.

An even larger number of venture capitalists and angel investors will be looking for companies to invest in.

Most of the 30 companies scheduled to make presentations are from Ohio, including four from Greater Cincinnati, said Charles Burkett, senior director for JumpStart, a Cleveland firm that organized the event with the Ohio Department of Development and Greater Cincinnati Venture Association.

All need money to grow.

Like SaccoSport of Mount Lookout. Founded last year by Patrick Walters, the company is developing a system to help bicyclists measure and analyze their performance. It received two rounds of early-stage financing from Queen City Angels, a local angel investor group headed by Tony Shipley of Indian Hill.

"We continue to look for new money," Walters said. "The money that we received from Queen City Angels was enough to get the product through development and into the market. The additional money we hope to get out of Innovest would accelerate the product and our reach in the market."

The conference starts at 7:30 a.m. today with a program on angel investing, followed by a 1 p.m. speech by Tim Draper of the Menlo Park, Calif., early-stage venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

It continues Friday morning and ends in mid-afternoon after remarks by Jack Wyant, managing partner of Blue Chip Venture Co., and Terry Jacobs, CEO of Regent Communications.

Innovest comes to Cincinnati every three years in a rotation with Cleveland and Columbus. Burkett said companies presenting at Innovest have raised $640 million in capital since 1996.

Interest in Innovest has changed little since the conference's last appearance in Cincinnati amid the tech-shakeout of 2001, Burkett said. But some companies are using the occasion to prepare for the day that they become presenters themselves.

"One of the biggest things a person can learn is how companies present their business plans, what investors are looking for and how to bring out those elements in their own business presentation," Burkett said.

SaccoSport will be joined by Charles H. Mack Inc., Atomic Dog Publishing and Delta Power Supply as hometown presenters.

Walters said Innovest provides an essential service.

"I think it's an absolute positive for both the entrepreneur and the investment community as well," he said. "It's really vital for economic growth, especially in an area like the Midwest where we don't have a high concentration of investment companies and entrepreneurial companies.

"It lets entrepreneurs know whether their idea is valued in the business world," Walters said.

The cost is $495 per person, $395 for each additional employee from a company. For more information, go to www.innovest.org.

E-mail jmcnair@enquirer.com