Upcoming Events

Webinar - Developing Online Survey Tools Effectively

Developing Online Survey Tools Effectively:

A 3-Session “Lunch at Your Desk” Webinar Series

Information that impacts marketing or product decisions is no longer a luxury … it is a necessity in being competitive.  As a follow-up to last spring’s workshop discussing online survey tools, Ben Franklin Venture Investment Forum is sponsoring a 3-session in-depth webinar series on constructing online surveys.  You need not have participated in the March 2008 workshop to be able to follow and benefit from this webinar series.

Jim Fong is the instructor.  He is President of Diagnostics Plus, a market research and consulting firm located in State College, Pennsylvania.  Prior to joining the company three years ago, he served for nearly a decade in a number of marketing and research leadership roles for Penn State Outreach. He also worked in leadership roles for two other market research firms and served as director of research for an advertising agency.  He holds an M.B.A., M.S. and B.S. from the University of Vermont and teaches marketing and research courses for Penn State University and Duquesne University.

The webinars will take place October 15, November 19 and December 10, 2008, from noon to 1:30 PM.  The sessions will be:

October 15 – Designing Your Survey for Success
November 19 – Question Design
December 10 – Sampling and List Development

Each webinar session will conclude with a homework assignment for the next session.

The cost for this webinar series is $100 per seat.  Register now, by completing the attached registration-[PDF] form and fax it to (717) 948-6481. Call us at (717) 948-6625 with any questions.

Due Diligence and Term Sheet Workshop

Angel investing is high risk investing. Two critically important components of this process are due diligence and negotiating the term sheet. Ben Franklin Venture Investment Forum is sponsoring the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation's "The Power of Angel Investing Series" Due Diligence and Term Sheet workshop on November 11, 2008 from 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM at Penn State Harrisburg. The morning session of the workshop, Due Diligence, takes the attendees through the key issues which will determine major risk factors and deal breakers, and provides a window on how this important investment process works. The workshop emphasizes what must be confirmed, the cost of confirming, and the risk of not knowing. Attendees learn what it takes to validate the plan and to define and contain the risk of investment. In the afternoon session, Term Sheets, a discussion of terms and conditions used by angel investors in funding early stage ventures are considered.

The workshop will be facilitated by Robert Okabe. Over the last decade Bob Okabe has been actively involved with early stage enterprises on multiple levels. As an angel investor he has made eleven investments with three positive returns of capital and co-founded Prairie Angels. He is a principal of RPX Group LLC (www.rpxgroup.com), a consultancy focused on assisting universities, research institutions, and corporations with spinning out some of their innovative technologies as startup companies.

We will also have a panel of experts: Michael Hund of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, who handles matters such as venture capital investments and other capital formation transactions for investors and for companies, mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, restructurings, capital planning and contests for corporate control; Dean Kline of Penn Venture Partners, a private equity fund whose objective is to seek long-term capital appreciation primarily through growth and expansion stage venture capital investments in companies located within central and northern Pennsylvania; and Catherine Mott of BlueTree Allied Angels, an angel investor group in western PA.

The cost for this full-day workshop is $175 per person and is limited to 60 participants. Please complete the attached registration and fax it to Jill Edwards at (717) 948-6481. For more information, contact Jill Edwards at Ben Franklin Venture Investment Forum, at (717) 948-6625 or by email.

Ben Franklin Venture Investment Forum receives funding from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central and Northern PA.

Developing Online Survey Tools Effectively: A 3-Session “Lunch at Your Desk”” Webinar Series

Information that impacts marketing or product decisions is no longer a luxury…it is a necessity in being competitive. As a follow-up to last spring’s workshop discussing online survey tools, Ben Franklin Venture Investment Forum and the Center for E-Business and Advanced IT are sponsoring a 3-session in-depth webinar series on constructing online surveys. You need not have participated in the March 2008 workshop to be able to follow and benefit from this webinar series.

Jim Fong is the instructor. He is President of Diagnostics Plus, a market research and consulting firm located in State College, Pennsylvania. Prior to joining the company three years ago, he served for nearly a decade in a number of marketing and research leadership roles for Penn State Outreach. He also worked in leadership roles for two other market research firms and served as director of research for an advertising agency. He holds an M.B.A., M.S. and B.S. from the University of Vermont and teaches marketing and research courses for Penn State University and Duquesne University.

The webinars will take place October 15, November 19 and December 10, 2008, from noon to 1:30 PM. The sessions will be:

• October 15 – Designing Your Survey for Success
• November 19 – Question Design
• December 10 – Sampling and List Development

Each webinar session will conclude with a homework assignment for the next session.

The cost for this webinar series is $100 per seat. Call us at (717) 948-6625 with any questions.

IP Security videoconference

December 11, 2008, from 8:30 AM to noon

You’ve filed for patents and copyrighted all your marketing materials, so you’re all set with having protected you company’s intellectual property, right? Not really. Patents and copyrights are only the most visible parts of your company’s IP. There are many others that may not immediately come to mind, but are every bit as important to the company’s viability.

How you protect these assets and the company is the subject of a videoconference workshop co-sponsored by Ben Franklin Venture Investment Forum and the Hershey Center for Applied Research entitled “IP Security”. This workshop will take place on December 11, 2008, from 8:30 AM to noon at a variety of locations across Pennsylvania: in Hershey at the Hershey Center for Applied Research; in University Park at 315 Rider Building; in Erie, at the Ben Franklin Erie office and in the Philadelphia area, in 201E Vairo Library at Penn State Brandywine. Choose the location that works best for you.

Our speakers are Mark Righter of McQuaide Blasko and Angie Singer Keating of Reclamere. Mark Righter is a managing partner with the law firm of McQuaide Blasko in State College. His specialty areas include technology transfer, intellectual property and corporate law.

Angie Singer Keating is a co-founder of Reclamere, Inc., a security focused I.T. asset management, data recovery and computer forensics company servicing Fortune 1000 as well as small and medium accounts. As Vice President of Compliance & Security for Reclamere, Keating is responsible for all security, legal and regulatory compliance aspects of the business. She is the primary liaison between Reclamere and its vendors, local DEP officials and the EPA. Keating sits on the Certification Committee and co-chairs the Electronic Media Destruction sub-committee for the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID).

The cost for this videoconference workshop is $100 per person. Seating at each location is limited, so register now! Please complete the attached registration and fax it to Jill Edwards at (717) 948-6481. For more information, contact Jill Edwards at Ben Franklin Venture Investment Forum, at (717) 948-6625 or jilledwards@psu.edu.

Ben Franklin Venture Investment Forum receives funding from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central and Northern PA.