Developing Cleveland area businesses will show off their ideas, technologies and talents at the 2012 Northeast Ohio Entrepreneurial Expo and JumpStart Community Meeting on Tuesday, November 13 from 1 to 5:40 p.m. at CSU’s Wolstein Center.

“The theme is, ‘What’s next Northeast Ohio,’” says Samantha Fryberger, JumpStart director of communications. “The idea being, a lot of companies are really early in their development.”

The expo will feature 96 area tech startups as well as 32 support organizations, such as Bizdom, Youngstown Business Incubator, Shaker LaunchHouse, Akron ARCHAngels and Ohio Aerospace Institute. Nine student companies will also be featured, one of which will be presented with an award at the event’s close.

The showcase will be followed by a panel discussion featuring success stories of area companies that have grown into multi-million dollar businesses. “We’ll have some of the biggest success stories who have merged, sold, been bought out or exited,” explains Fryberger.

Goldman Sachs will talk about its 10,000 Small Businesses program, followed by an announcement of JumpStart’s newest portfolio companies.

And of course, investors will also be on hand to see what the next great thing is in the region. Fryberger says 25 investors attended the event last year, and she expects the same this year.

“It’s a little bit of everything,” says Fryberger. “It’s an opportunity to network. There are some of these companies who could help each other quite a bit. And if you’re very early in development, this is your first opportunity for exposure.”

The event is free and open to the public.

Source: Samantha Fryberger
Writer: Karin Connelly