Inaugural ILBIF: February 28, 2005

3-2-1 and We Have Liftoff.

The inaugural Illinois Business & Investment Forum (ILBIF) was launched on Monday, February 28, 2005 gathering angel and early stage investors in Downtown Chicago, Peoria, and West Chicago, Illinois to learn about new investment opportunities and educational/best practices information on angel and early-stage investing. Using high-speed Access Grid technology made available through the Technology, Research, Education, and Commercialization Center , attendees’ at all three venues participated in near real time, interactive video conference viewing presentations from each site.

The process began as the ILBIF Review Panel vetted business plans and selected two early-stage companies Populex Corporation and Snap2play to present their investment presentation, in addition to featuring commercialization opportunities from Caterpillar, Inc. The Populex Corporation is commercializing an accurate touch-screen voting machine with secure paper ballot output. While Snap2Play is a publisher and developer of computer games for the casual downloadable game market. Both companies are seeking early stage angel investments. Commercialization opportunities were also showcased by Caterpillar, Inc. stemming from a concerted effort underway to monetize intellectual property via licenses, joint ventures, and start-up opportunities. Caterpillar is continuing to build on the momentum generated from the prior success of their innovative battery technology start-up called Firefly Energy, Inc. which recently closed on a Series A $4 million round of funding.

The Forum also devotes a portion of the agenda to providing educational information and best practices data about seed and pre-seed stage investing. Mr. Bart Carlson, founder of Northern Illinois Angels and several successful start-up companies, presented information on a new initiative called the Illinois Capital Fund. In addition, Raman Chadha, Executive Director- Coleman Entrepreneurship Center, presented information on DePaul University’s newly formed Angel Academy, a four part continuous learning series, for new and prospective investors.

The response we have received from the inaugural Forum has been extremely favorable, and we are beginning the process to schedule the next ILBIF for late Spring 2005. Please check back soon for more details.