University of Tennessee Health Science Center – Invention to Venture Tennessee 2011!

Just imagine a room filled with entrepreneurs: tall ones, short ones, rich ones, poor ones, experts, and novices… the list goes on and on. These entrepreneurs travelled from all over—Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Texas, and Arkansas. All of these entrepreneurs united for Invention to Venture: Tennessee 2011! Sessions were lively with questions and discussion! Topics included:

Idea Validation & Opportunity Assessment by Mike Sherman of MB Venture Partners

Sales & Marketing in the Life Sciences by Patrick Wilson of Medtronic

Building the Team by Jan Bouten of Innova and Allan Daisley of Memphis Bioworks Foundation

Finding the Funds Panel by Andrew Seamons of Pittco Capital Partners, Eric Mathews of LaunchMemphis and Brad Silver of Computable Genomics

Intellectual Property & Licensing by Susan Fentress of Harris Shelton Hanover Walsh, PLLC

FDA & Regulations by Michael Meagher of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Business Planning in the Life Science by Michael Graber of Southern Growth Studio

The highlight of the event was the Experiences in Entrepreneurship Luncheon featuring Pitt Hyde, Founder of AutoZone. The event even attracted media attention from The Commercial Appeal (check out the article at http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/nov/12/success-story/). Overall, Invention to Venture: Tennessee 2011 was a huge success. Thanks to all of the speakers and the organization team that made it happen!

~Dee Helton, Student Ambassador at UT Health Science Center