For the first time, the Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) is hosting an online experience for its annual Venture Connect summit. Dozens of tech and life science companies will pitch their products/services in installments for three weeks in May.

The content is separated into “episodes,” each appealing to different audiences spanning tech and life science, B2B, B2C and investors/VCs. Episodes will be released May 4, May 11 and May 18 at 10 a.m. Each week includes a series of pitches from a group of around 30 tech and life science companies, along with an educational webinar covering patent budgeting, legal budgeting and fundraising. In total, more than 90 startups will get an opportunity to pitch over the course of the three-week program.

Investor attendees are granted access to exclusive live discussions with VCs from Bull City Venture Partners, IDEA Fund Partners, Cofounders Capital, Excelerate Health, Hatteras Venture Partners, KdT Ventures and Pappas Capital. They’ll talk deal flow trends, how they’re supporting portfolio companies, COVID-19 opportunities and what they expect for the rest of 2020.

The final week of the program, May 18, will feature pitches from the latest class of startups in Charlotte’s Queen City Fintech accelerator.

CED anticipates over 650 unique logins over the course of the three-week program.

Venture Connect is one of the most popular annual tech conferences in North Carolina. It’s a destination for hundreds of entrepreneurs and investors from in and outside of the state each year.

The Council for Entrepreneurial Development had originally scheduled this year’s conference for March 17-19 at the Raleigh Convention Center, but leadership ultimately had to postpone the event in early March to help contain the spread of COVID-19.

The organization spent the past month putting together an online experience that could provide just as much interaction as the in-person program.

Kelly Rowell, CED’s interim president and CEO, says that CED will continue to adapt its programming to keep the community safe during the pandemic.

“Companies are still moving forward, investors are still investing, and resources still have support to give, so the work we do is even more critical now, in such a challenging business climate,” Rowell adds. “CED, along with all the resources in our entrepreneurial ecosystem, is dedicated to helping innovation thrive. ”

Tickets to Venture Connect Online are $200, available here. 

https://wraltechwire.com/event/ced-venture-connect-summit/all/