Venture Atlanta Attracts VCs From 20 States

ATLANTA—About 500 entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and executives attended Venture Atlanta 08 at the spacious OMNI Hotel yesterday and today. "We're thrilled by the response to this event," said Allen Moseley of Noro-Moseley Partners. "It's an example of the community really pulling together to showcase entrepreneurs in this region."

Moseley, chair of the event's executive board, added, "Despite the difficult economic climate, it reminds everyone of the entrepreneurial spirit that creates our next great companies."

David Hartnett, vice president at the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce told TechJournal South that more than 100 venture capitalist from 20 states attended. "This is the largest venture forum in Georgia history," he said.

The Chamber, the Atlanta CEO Council, and the Technology Association of Georgia collaborated to develop the conference. Hartnett said one thing that helped make it a reality was that Ashish Mistry, president of the CEO Council, Tino Mantella, president of TAG, and Hartnett were all former business executives.

Carlos Dominguez CEO of Cisco gave the opening address and Bernard Marcus, co-founder of The Home Depot keynoted the event at lunch.

Presenting companies included:

TerraGo Technologies, which develops and markets software that extends the access and application of maps and images to business professionals who rely on geospacial information to do their jobs.

MDdatacor, the first and only U.S. healthcare information technology company to partner with health plans and doctors to provide patient clinical data that helps physicians improve patient care, which in turn reduces healtcare costs.

GMT, a provider of workforce optimization solutions to help service organizations improve customer experiences while reducing payroll expense.

Worthpoint Corp., a pioneer in building an Internet information database for the $150 billion a year antiques and collectibles marketplace.

Others were 04 Corp.; Nexidia, Vigtrue, 2080 Media, Control Scan, Silverpop, REACH Call, Acculynk, Vocolocity, SoloHealth, Multicast Media Technologies, Purewire, Moneta, Snapfinger, and MFG.com.

TechJournal South has profiled a number of these companies and will profiling most of the others in coming months.

Atlanta will continue to grow it's venture presence when TechJournal brings its own regional venture conference series, the Southeast Venture Conference, to the area in March of 2009.