Troy to host annual small biz summit

TROY, N.Y. » For a second year, business owners, local entrepreneurs and industry leaders will gather Tuesday, Oct. 17, to celebrate the city’s ongoing economic renaissance and explore ways to support further small business growth at the annual Troy Small Business Summit.

The summit, presented by the city and its the Office of Economic Development, along with the Troy Local Development Corp., will be held from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Tech Valley Center of Gravity, 30 3rd St., and will feature discussions on job growth, marketing and other issues pertaining to entrepreneurship.

“Small businesses and entrepreneurs remain at the core of what makes Troy such a special place in the Capital Region,” said Mayor Patrick Madden in a news release announcing ghr summit. “We are pleased to again bring together the talented and passionate members of our thriving business and development community for this year’s summit and look forward to exploring new ways to support the continued growth of Troy as a great place to do business.”

This year’s summit will feature extended breakout programming, including two tracks of group breakout sessions with local and regional experts in marketing, human resources, and restaurant entrepreneurship. The program also includes a Troy Gaming Industry panel discussion with Guha Bala, president of Velan Ventures and Steven Flenory, head of studio for WB Games New York.

The keynote address will be given by Sinclair Schuller, CEO of Apprenda, whose recent capital fund campaign secured $57 million in venture capital funds to deliver private and public PaaS to enterprise developers. Sinclair serves on multiple venture networks and speaks nationally on the topics of enterprise IT efficiency, cloud computing and next-generation enterprise architectures.

Immediately following the

summit, participants are invited to attend a special business networking mixer organized by the Downtown Troy Business Improvement District and Rensselaer County Regional Chamber of Commerce from 5 to 7 p.m. at Ignite U, located upstairs from the Tech Valley Center of Gravity on the third floor of the Quackenbush Building.

Limited seating is available for the summit, with reservations accepted online at http://troysmallbiz.eventbrite.com. Brown bag lunches from Plumb Oyster Bar and Tara Kitchen will also be available by advance order for $10.

For more information on the summit, contact Kennedy by email at Cheryl.Kennedy@troyny.gov or by calling 518-279-7412.