Raleigh-Durham Entrepreneur Organizations: A Whole New World
| The movie “Aladdin” is a favorite in my house with the kids right now. Actually, the movie is a favorite in my house and the soundtrack is a favorite in my car so there is no escaping it. Thus, the song, “A Whole New World” is often running through my head.After going to my first Council for Entrepreneurial Development meeting last week, I realized that “A Whole New World” could be my current theme song. I’ve participated in several professional associations over my career, but they have been ones that catered to the corporate world. I had never thought about exploring organizations that support entrepreneurs…until now.
The Council for Entrepreneurial Development kicked off their CAFÉ series (Competitive Advantage through Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship) last Thursday, August 13th. The program was sold out. The meeting was titled, “Expanding Your Network: An Introduction to the Area’s Entrepreneur Support Organizations.” Representatives from 17 organizations spoke to the approximately 150 people who filled the room. I took pages of notes and I plan to check out the websites of each organization over the next few weeks to decide which ones I’d like to visit. The number of organizations that support entrepreneurship, the variety of their services and the depth of their resources astounded me. After listening to the representatives, I really felt like “a whole new world” was opening up before me. I figured there might be some other people in the Raleigh-Durham area who are exploring entrepreneurship and who were unable to make it to the meeting. In case you stumble across my blog, I wanted to share the website addresses for the organizations who attended. Please note that I have pulled website addresses for the local Raleigh-Durham chapters, but many of these organizations have chapters throughout the U.S. and/or around the world. |
Raleigh-Durham Entrepreneur Support Organizations:
- Association for Corporate Growth (ACG)
http://www.acgrtp.org/ - Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals (ASAP)
http://www.strategic-alliances.org/chapter/rtp-carolina - Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO)
http://www.eonetwork.org/Pages/default.aspx - The First Flight Venture Center (FFVC)
http://www.ffvcnc.org/ - Licensing Executives Society (LES)
http://www.lesusacanada.org/MainNav/LocalChapters/LES-USA-East-Region/RTP.aspx - National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD)
http://www.rtc-nacd.org/ - National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO)
http://www.nawbo-raleigh.org/ - North Carolina Biosciences Organization (NCBIO)
http://www.ncbioscience.org/ - North Carolina Biotechnology Center
http://www.ncbiotech.org/ - NC IDEA
http://www.ncidea.org/ - North Carolina Chinese Business Association (NCCBA)
http://nc-cba.org/ - North Carolina Technology Association (NCTA)
http://www.nctechnology.org/ - Renewable Energy Business Network (REBN)
http://www.rebn.org/administrator/research-triangle - Small Business & Technology Development Council (SBTDC)
http://www.sbtdc.org/ - Triangle Gaming Initiative (TGI)
http://www.trianglegameinitiative.org/ - The Indus Entrepreneur (TiE)
http://tie-carolinas.org - Triangle Technology Executive Council (TTEC)
http://www.ncttec.net/
Thanks to CED for the wonderful program for people like me (Raleigh-Durham entrepreneurs in the making). I’m sure “Aladdin” will be in my DVD player and CD player for a few more months at least. Each time I hear “A Whole New World,” I’ll think of my first CED event and be thankful for my magic carpet ride. Who knows where it will lead?