JumpStart will celebrate the region’s entrepreneurs at the Northeast Ohio Entrepreneur Expo and JumpStart Community Meeting on Tuesday, October 25 at the John S. Knight Center in Akron. The event will feature high-growth entrepreneurs, student entrepreneurs and investors. 

Organizers have signed up 20 entrepreneurs to exhibit their companies, and expect almost 80 by the time of the event. Three hundred people have already signed up to attend the event.

Entrepreneurs attracted $237 million in angel and investor capital to the area in 2010 and created or retained more than 8,500 jobs since 2005. Officials at JumpStart think those numbers are reason to celebrate and continue to encourage people to follow their ideas and dreams.

“We believe entrepreneurship is the key to creating jobs in the community,” says JumpStart director of communications Samantha Fryberger. “By having people involved in one place at one time creates a sort of synergistic celebration of what’s been done and what’s coming ahead.”

New this year is an educational component to the expo, focused on three main areas: capital, talent and public relations. Community leaders will speak on these three areas of entrepreneurship to help advise participants in how to raise capital in both traditional and non-traditional ways, how to attract good talent on a budget, and the importance of good PR to promote a business on a budget.

Student entrepreneurs will also get a chance to showcase their ideas, network and get feedback on things like elevator speeches and developing their ideas.

The expo is free to the public. Exhibitor booths are $85.

Source: Samantha Fryberger
Writer: Karin Connelly