­The upcoming October 31st Entrepreneurs Conference at College of the Canyons has added an innovative electronic link between the participants and the Sloan Brothers, founders of StartupNation and the keynote speakers for the event.

We decided there are two major opportunities to take this conference to the next level, said Peter Bellas, Director of the Center for Applied Competitive Technologies and one of the conference planners. ³Before the conference, we want to hear from conference registrants about the issues and topics that are really important to them. After the conference, we want to make sure that attendees have ongoing support as they implement the great ideas gained during the conference.

Through the assistance of the Sloan Brothers, Bellas set up a web-based forum on the StartupNation's website to facilitate a dialogue between participants and the entrepreneurial experts at the Sloan Brothers organization.  This "Small Business and Entrepreneur Forum" can be accessed directly from the College’s Entrepreneur's Conference website www.canyonsconference.com. Conference registrants can post messages, interact with the Sloans and each other, and participate in shaping the conference.  

Following the conference, the forum will be available so that conference attendees can pose questions about what they learned during the conference, share their experience as they try out business strategies covered by the conference speakers, and collaborate with other conference participants. One of the key challenges in being an entrepreneur is the isolation of working alone, without the peers you might have in a larger organization, said Dena Maloney, Dean of Economic Development at College of the Canyons. With the Small Business and Entrepreneur Forum created for this conference, entrepreneurs will have access to a group of like-minded peers who are busy trying to start or grow a business.  The web-based forum, stressed Maloney, is a unique way to launch a support network once the conference is over. According the US Small Business Administration, 550,000 small businesses are started every year.  California is home to 2.6 million small businesses with half the state's employment in small business. 

 

The Dream and Discover Entrepreneur Conference focuses on the needs of entrepreneurs who have a desire to start, expand or develop their business. The conference is sponsored by the College of the Canyons Center for Applied Competitive Technologies, the Small Business Development Center hosted by College of the Canyons, and the California Community College Economic and Workforce Development Division.

To learn more about the conference, visit www.canyonsconference.com or call the College of the Canyons Economic Development Division 661.259.3874.

 

For more details on the Sloan Brothers, visit www.startupnation.com