10 Innovators to Showcase their Business Plans

August 21, 2007, RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – The Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) is pleased to announce the names of the ten early stage companies selected to present at the fifth annual Opportunity conference next month. The conference will be held on September 10-11 at the SunSpree Resort in Wrightsville Beach, N.C.

The Opportunity 2007 early stage presenting companies are:

• A-B Sea Research, Inc. (Raleigh, N.C., a-b-sea.com)
• Beecoz (Raleigh, N.C., www.beecoz.com)
• BioMedomics (RTP, N.C., www.biomedomics.com)
• Magnus Health Portal (Raleigh, N.C., www.magnushealthportal.com)
• Nanovector (Raleigh, N.C.)
• PrepChamps (Apex, N.C., www.prepchamps.com)
• Source Horizon, Inc. (Greensboro, N.C., www.sourceauthority.com)
• Transfusion & Transplantation Technologies (3Ti) (Atlanta, Ga.)
• Trend Funnel (Greensboro, N.C., www.trendfunnel.com)
• Valencell, Inc. (Raleigh, N.C., www.valencell.com)

In addition to the early stage company presentations, the conference also includes Curbside Consulting, in which entrepreneurs meet one-on-one to discuss critical business issues with industry professionals, and workshops on topics ranging from real estate entrepreneurship to building a successful branding campaign around a business or product. A key benefit of all CED programs, conference attendees experience diverse opportunities to network with angel investors, entrepreneurs and service professionals. Success stories will be shared by seasoned entrepreneurs in keynote remarks from the former CEO of Hotjobs.com, Richard Johnson, and the CEO of Trans1, Inc., Richard Randall.

And, following its success at CED’s Venture 2007 Conference, the popular Start-up Speed Dating program makes its debut at Opportunity 2007. In this fast-paced, round-robin event, pre-seed companies have three minutes to pitch and two minutes for Q&A with each table of investors. After five minutes, the companies move to the next group of investors. A list of participating companies will be released in the coming weeks.

“The annual Opportunity conference provides investors with a front row seat to see up-and-coming investment opportunities in the Southeast,” said CED President Monica Doss. “We are especially excited about this year’s lineup of early stage presenting companies.”