The 2007 CED Venture Conference

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I spent yesterday meeting with some really interesting entrepreneurs and investors at the Council for Entrepreneurial Development's Venture 2007 Conference in Durham, North Carolina. Featuring angel investors, venture capitalists and a host of seriously impressive entrepreneurs, the conference was held at the Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club on the edge of Duke University's campus. CED is a really top-notch regional development organization that supports entrepreneurial businesses in North Carolina. Judging by the state's recent success in attracting venture capital, I'd say they're doing an excellent job.

One of the featured companies, Tengion, could be on to something big. They're growing replacement "neo-organs" in a lab using a patient's own cells. So far the company has actually grown new human bladders on something called a "bioresorbable scaffold," a frame which essentially biodegrades after the new organ is inserted into the body. Though not all of the companies in attendance had the Frankenstein-like appeal of Tengion, the conference featured everything from a fledgling social networking site for tobacco smokers to CPS BioFuels, a Cary, North Carolina company looking to convert vegetable oils into usable alternative energy.

The prevailing sentiment in North Carolina's entrepreneurial and investor community -- which was filled with more than a few ex-Silicon Valley veterans, I might add -- was a feeling of community, optimism and support. I'm talking about things like angels cooperating with VCs and entrepreneurs openly sharing their trade secrets with each other, neither of which you're likely to encounter in Silicon Valley. Chalk it up to southern hospitality or just plain good people, but you have to wonder whether or not North Carolina's success in fostering this type of innovative, entrepreneurial culture is tied to the staggering degree to which people there seem eager to work together.

So how cooperative is the entrepreneurial climate in your area? Do you think that goodwill in a region's investment and entrepreneurial circles has any effect on a region's economic success? How does your area of the country compare to the notoriously competitive landscapes of Silicon Valley or Boston's Route 128?