March 21, 2006 | Events

Conference Focuses on Small Businesses

By Pat Vaughan Tremmel

CHICAGO --- Business and legal leaders from across the country will gather at a conference hosted by Northwestern University School of Law’s Small Business Opportunity Center (SBOC) to discuss such issues as social entrepreneurship, financing a small business and developing new ideas.

Offering the latest on entrepreneurship and small business issues, the Small Business Opportunity Conference will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday, April 8, at the School of Law, 357 E. Chicago Ave.

Randall Kaplan, president and chief executive officer of JUMP Investors, a Los Angeles-based private equity and venture capital firm, will deliver the keynote speech. Kaplan also is a co-founder of Akamai Technologies, Inc. An Internet infrastructure company with a market capitalization exceeding $4 million, Akamai serves nearly 20 percent of the world’s Web traffic.

“The conference will provide great opportunities for networking with leaders of the small business community, a vibrant sector of the economy,” said Thomas Morsch, clinical professor at the School of Law. “The leadership that our students have showed in organizing such a conference is unprecedented.”

Organized by SBOC’s student board, the conference speakers, panels and workshops are expected to attract 300 attendees from around the country. Participants will include CEOs, prominent venture capitalists, aspiring entrepreneurs, distinguished thought leaders, and business and law school students.

Admission to the conference is free for those who register online or $10 at the door.

For more information, contact student board marketing directors John Gribbin at j-gribbin2007@law.northwestern.edu or Liz Hudson at e-hudson2007@law.northwestern.edu.

The Small Business Opportunity Center is a nonprofit student-based program affiliated with Northwestern University School of Law’s Bluhm Legal Clinic. Working under the supervision of professors, law students provide affordable legal services to entrepreneurs and nonprofit organizations focusing on job creation and economic development in the Chicago area. For more information, visit http://www.law.northwestern.edu/sboc/.