INTRODUCTION
Association for Corporate Growth Richmond and The Venture Forum came together again for the second annual conference for private company financing sources and entrepreneurs, Virginia Capital Conference. Virginia Capital Conference was held on October 3rd and 4th at the historic Jefferson Hotel in Richmond, Virginia. Last year’s event featured over 400 attendees including over 150 representatives of institutional private capital funds.
This year’s agenda included informative insights on the economy and political outlook from confirmed speakers including:
- J. Alfred Broaddus, Jr., Chairman of the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond from 1993 to 2004
- The Honorable Patrick O. Gottschalk, Secretary of Commerce and Trade for the Commonwealth of Virginia
- Dr. Larry J. Sabato, Director of the University of Virginia ’s Center for Politics, Professor of Politics at UVa and nationally recognized political analyst
A key part of this year’s agenda included building on the event’s past success in highlighting entrepreneurial companies from the Richmond area to more broadly recognize emerging growth companies from across the Commonwealth. The Venture Forum's applicants for nominations for Virginia's Growth Companies, a program to recognize promising growth companies in the Commonwealth reflected the high quality of private company investing opportunities for venture, mezzanine and private equity investors and are likely to seek growth or recapitalization financing in the next 12 to 24 months.
Each selected company was recognized with a 2007 Virginia's Growth Company award. In addition, those selected companies from the Greater Richmond area will also be recognized in the January 2008 Greater Richmond’s Companies to Watch (GRCTW) four-color brochure.
The Virginia's Growth Companies program will take place on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 3rd. Selected participants will be provided with an exhibition booth for showcasing their business and facilitating networking with representatives of over 40 institutional firms who have already registered to attend, including:
- Allied Capital
- American Capital Strategies
- BB&T Capital
- EnVest Ventures
- Frontier Capital
- Harbert Management Corp
- HIG Capital
- Milestone Partners
- PNC Equity
- The Carlyle Group
The awards program will take place at the cocktail reception on Wednesday evening from 5pm to 7pm.
Benefits to selected companies:
- Networking opportunities with institutional investors
- Executive summary (with company-approved disclosures) distributed to all conference attendees
- Awards recognition
- GRCTW companies also highlighted in brochure created by the Venture Forum and distributed to regional institutional venture investors
- Complementary participation for two executives (1)
The Selection Committee for Virginia's Growth Companies/GRCTW is now accepting applications for award nominees. All application materials will be held in confidence by the selection committee. Application to occur by September 15.__