Not your run-of-the-mill line-up of speakers, these bestselling authors, business experts and leaders will be available to answer your questions and get down to brass tacks on how to build your business. Using the current economic opportunity as a backdrop for their session topics, Growth speakers will inspire you to face this economy head on.

• How to Raise Money Now

• Unleashing Your Competitive Edge

• Beating Small-Business Challenges

• What Your CPA Isn't Telling You

• Small But Social: How Small Businesses Can Win With Social Media Marketing

• Rethinking Unpopular - Five Strategies for Branding Success

• Overcoming Business Hurdles

Chris Brogan - Author, Trust Agents
Harness The Power Of Social Media

Learn the ins and outs of how to use social media, the web and mobile technology to make an astounding impact on the bottom line of your business. Industry influential and bestselling author Chris Brogan leads the way.

About Chris

Chris Brogan consults and speaks professionally with Fortune 100 and 500 companies like PepsiCo, General Motors, Microsoft and more on the future of business communications and social software technologies. He is the New York Times bestselling co-author of Trust Agents and a featured monthly columnist at Entrepreneur magazine. Chris's blog, [chrisbrogan.com], is in the Top 5 of the Advertising Age Power150. He has over 11 years of experience in online community, social media and related technologies.

Chrisbrogan.com

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How to Raise Money Now with Asheesh Advani

Raising capital to start a business or grow a business is tough. Raising money during a recession is tougher than tough. This seminar will outline how to raise money during turbulent times and provide fresh ideas for entrepreneurs formulating strategies for financing their business. Topics include angel financing, insider financing and venture capital.

About Asheesh

Asheesh has over 15 years of experience as an entrepreneur, investor, and social innovator. He was the Founder and CEO of CircleLending which pioneered the business of managing peer-to-peer loans between relatives and friends and was acquired by Richard Branson's Virgin Group in 2007. Subsequently, he served as CEO of Virgin Money USA, the American arm of Virgin's consumer financial services business, until June 2009.

Asheesh is a graduate of the Wharton School and Oxford University, where he was a Commonwealth Scholar. Selected as one of Boston's Top 40 Under 40 by the Boston Business Journal, Asheesh actively supports social enterprises and non-profits in the areas of financial security and education.

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Unleashing Your Competitive Edge: The Psychology, Sociology and Technology of Productivity with Jason Womack

If there were just a handful of secrets to being more purposeful, productive and profitable this year, when would you want to know them? Tomorrow? Next month? How about right now? As an entrepreneur your work is always "right there." On the job or off, while you're commuting or while you're out to dinner with family and friends, your mind wanders over your to-dos. The solution: Call it all work. This session is about "the psychology, sociology and technology" of productivity. You will learn how to get more done and done faster by conquering the three channels affecting your productivity:

• Psychology: How do you think? How do you plan? How do you prioritize?
• Sociology: How does the invisible affect the visible? How do you work with those around you?
• Technology: How do your systems and tools support you? Where could you save time, using the tools you have been provided?

About Jason

Jason W. Womack, MEd, MA provides practical methods to maximize tools, systems and processes to achieve quality work/life balance. He has worked with leaders and executives for over 16 years in the business, government and education sectors. His focus is on creating ideas that matter and implementing solutions that are valuable to the organization and the individuals in those organizations. Author of the upcoming book, Your Best Just Got Better: Work Smarter, Think Bigger, Make More (Wiley, February 2012), Jason shows that working longer hours doesn't make up for a flawed approach to productivity and performance. Entrepreneurs need to clarify their habits, build mindset-based strategies, and be proactive. Womack's signature workplace performance seminars and coaching offer specific strategies to consistently and incrementally improve performance.

JasonWomackBlog.com

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What Your CPA Isn't Telling You with Mark Kohler

CPA Mark Kohler shares top tax deductions for small-business owners, scams to avoid and tips for structuring your business to protect against lawsuits. He'll also cover a number of additional tax and legal topics, such as:

• How to select the proper entity for your business without getting pressured to buy
• What to know to avoid scams when structuring your business
• Ways to implement the hottest tax strategies for business owners
• Choosing the best health care strategy to save money reduce and taxes
• Using the proper procedure to put family members on payroll to save taxes legitimately
• How to self-direct YOUR retirement plan in business deals

About Mark

Mark J. Kohler is an attorney, certified public accountant, entrepreneur and author of What Your CPA Isn't Telling You—Life-Changing Tax Strategies (Entrepreneur Press) and Lawyers are Liars—The Truth About Protecting Our Assets. Mark's principal career has been as a partner in the accounting firms Kohler & Eyre CPAs, LLP; NumberWon Accountants, LLP; and the law firm Kyler, Kohler, Ostermiller, & Sorensen, LLP, where he specializes in the areas of business, estate and tax planning.

MarkKohler.com

Facebook.com/markkohler

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Small But Social: How Small Businesses Can Win With Social Media Marketing with Jason Falls

Social media marketing isn't just the latest, greatest fad, it's a powerful mechanism to cultivate customer relationships that drive business. In this talk, expert Jason Falls will help you understand:

• The philosophies that drive strong social media marketing efforts
• How to approach social media marketing strategically
• What management approaches help make social media marketing feasible for small businesses
• What tools exist to help drive solid marketing strategies to move the needle for small businesses
• How to measure and account for the time and money invested in social media marketing

About Jason

Jason Falls is one of the leading thinkers, strategists and public speakers in the social media marketing, digital marketing and online communications industries. He is the author of the noted industry blog SocialMediaExplorer.com, a fixture at or near the top of the AdvertisingAge Power 150 Marketing Blogs list and is responsible for ExploringSocialMedia.com, a learning community for digital and social media marketing, online communications and technology.

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All Fired Up: Tips to Ignite Customer Passion for Your Brands with Erika Napoletano

Join Erika Napoletano, columnist for Entrepreneur magazine, blogger, and author of two books including the March 2012 release The Power of Unpopular (debuting at SXSW 2012) for a rollicking hour filled with all of the things we should skip when it comes to branding our businesses. In a mere hour, you'll find enough food for thought to keep your brain (and brand) from starving until at least the next Presidential election, including:

• The single biggest mistake businesses make in branding and how YOU can avoid it
• Why you're probably hiring a graphic designer WAY too soon
• Seven things you can do when you walk out of this session to immediately boost your brand equity
• 10 things you should NEVER say when speaking to a customer
• Components to The Best Elevator Pitch on the Face of the Planet
• Three books every entrepreneur should read (and why they have nothing to do with business, marketing or branding) and why they have everything to do with branding

When you walk out of this session, you'll be laughing and realizing once again why you decided to take this crazy ride of creating the economy instead of just being a part of it and asking yourself the most important question every entrepreneur has to be able to answer: "What sets ME on fire?

About Erika

Erika Napoletano is the Head Redhead at RHW Media LLC, a Denver-based online strategies consultancy. Her blog, RedheadWriting, is a bastion for "unpopular thoughts and blunt advice-delivered" and consistently strives to say what others won't and don't (but should) about marketing, social media, business integrity and life in general. Her column in Entrepreneur magazine debuted in June of this year, coinciding with the announcement of her first two book deals (both to be released in early 2012).

Facebook.com/RedheadWriting

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Overcoming Business Hurdles, Moderated by Colleen DeBaise

Discover straight from a panel of business experts and Southern California entrepreneurs the very latest ideas that will help you overcome hurdles keeping you from skyrocketing sales. Moderated by Colleen DeBaise, Entrepreneur.com's special projects director, this panel will ignite a hands-on discussion about the latest challenges facing entrepreneurial businesses and how they can be conquered through everything from social media and marketing, business-building techniques, and strategies for identifying and adapting to marketplace changes. Join us to get an in-depth look at how you can make your company bigger, better and stronger in the Southern California marketplace and beyond.

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