Event: From Idea to Investment For the IDM industry by Expara Pte Ltd

Are you an IDM company, or an entrepreneur with an IDM idea? Would you like to raise funds to start or grow your IDM company? Expara Pte Ltd will feature the “From Idea to Investment For the IDM industry: Business skills master class” by Douglas Abrams, Managing Director, Parallax Capital Management & Co-Deputy Chairman, Business Angels Network Southeast Asia (BANSEA). The event will be held on 6th and 7th of August 2007, 9.00 am – 5.00 pm in NUSS Guild House – Suntec City Tower 4, Level 5.

Who should attend? :

This workshop is designed for participants who have a serious interest in starting or growing a scalable IDM business – a business which can reach a significant size. It will be especially useful for participants who are interested in seeking venture funding for their business and who want to increase their chances of obtaining funding from venture capitalists, angels and other venture investors

How do we help you get from Idea to Investment? : This is not a “how to write a business plan” course. It is an intensive, hands-on workshop, in which participants will develop their existing IDM business or IDM business ideas into an actual business plan which they will be able to present to potential venture investors.

Workshop highlights: The workshop will help participants better understand the process and dynamics of fund-raising in order to increase their chances of success. This highly-interactive workshop will focus on improving the participant’s business plan, investor presentation and presentation skills.

Participants will learn:
• What do investors look for in a business plan?
• What do investors look for in a presentation?
• Communicating with investors
• Getting to and getting past gatekeepers
• Identifying and avoiding investor red flags
• How to get an investor to read your business plan
• Handling investor Q&A

Participants will present their business plans to a panel of investors, who will give them feedback to help them improve their plans.

The two day workshop will be followed-up by a one-hour private consultation with each company to further improve their marketing and financial plan.

Douglas Abrams and his track record
Douglas Abrams developed his workshops based on his experience as an entrepreneur and venture investor in Singapore, where he is a Managing Director of Parallax Capital Management; as a Vice President, intrapreneur and technology innovator for 14 years at JP Morgan in New York, and as an Adjunct Associate Professor lecturing on entrepreneurship at the National University of Singapore.

Douglas graduated from the Annenberg School, University of Pennsylvania with a BAs in Communications and received an MBA from The Wharton School. He is a lecturer on New Venture Creation and Technopreneurship at the National University of Singapore Business School and was awarded the prize for Most Creative Teaching Method by the Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises Program at Syracuse University. Douglas is Co-Deputy Chairman of the Business Angel Network of South East Asia (BANSEA) and serves as
an advisor for many start-up companies, including those started by his former students.

Douglas has trained more than 1400 fledgling and current entrepreneurs from 20 countries. His students and companies have raised more than S$3 million in investment, business plan prizes, and grants. From 2004-2006, Douglas’s students have taken home 80 prizes in major business plan competitions all over the
world. He has founded two IDM start-ups in Singapore, is a Director in another and has worked as an advisor and trainer for more than 50 local early-stage IDM companies. He is also the founder of Expara, a company providing entrepreneurship and innovation training and advisory services. Expara is one of the approved mentors in the IDM Microfinancing program.

What exactly is IDM and does my business/idea qualify?
Interactive and Digital Media (IDM) can apply to a wide range of businesses and business ideas, including IDM technologies, content and convergence. In addition to traditional media businesses, IDM can include IDM-enabling technologies, digital animation, mobile applications, Web 2.0 and 3.0 applications, and virtual worlds. If you are not sure whether your business or business idea qualifies as an IDM business, go ahead and register and we will review it for you.

Register online at this URL or email Ms. Ivy Tan at ivy@expara.com with the following details by 1st August 2007:
(i) Full name
(ii) NRIC or Passport No. (if the latter, please indicate country of issue)
(iii) Nationality
(iv) Occupation &/or designation
(v) Company
(vi) Contact details (mailing address, email address, contact numbers)
(vii) A brief description of your IDM business or business idea

Note: The workshop is limited to 20 seats only and registration will be made on a first-come-first-serve basis

Payment of S$50 is to be made payable to Expara Pte Ltd via

Cheque and mailed to:
Expara Pte Ltd
1 George St, #17-05
Singapore 049145

Registration will be confirmed upon receipt of full payment, and successful registrants will be notified via email or telephone and will be sent a marketing and financial plan worksheet to fill out and bring to the workshop.

This workshop will be offered free of charge. Your $50 check will be returned to you on the final day of the workshop. However, we must receive your $50 check to confirm your seat at the workshop.

For more information or general enquiries, please contact Ms. Ivy Tan at
Tel : +65 6435-5295
Fax : +65 6536-7908
Email : ivy@expara.com

About The Author

SGE - (SGE)

Covering the Singapore and Southeast Asia startup and entrepreneurship scene since 2005.

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