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For Immediate Release
Alan Fogg,
Director of Communications
afogg@fceda.org, 703-790-0600 (o) or 571-213-5065 (m)
U.S. Small Business Administration ombudsman Michael Barrera to keynote 2003 Emerging Business Forum, replacing SBA chief
Third annual conference for diversely led businesses
set for October 8-10
Fairfax County, Virginia, October 7, 2003 – Michael Barrera, National Ombudsman of the U.S. Small Business Administration, will be the keynote speaker at the 2003 Emerging Business Forum. He replaces SBA Administrator Hector Barreto, who must attend to a family emergency.
EBF2003 is designed to accelerate the growth of diversely led enterprises from the mid-Atlantic region. The forum is set for Oct. 8-10 at the Hilton McLean Tysons Corner in Fairfax County. The event is expected to draw 300 executives of early-stage and established companies. Sessions will cover doing business with established companies, international trade opportunities, financing, marketing and communications, corporate governance, entrepreneurship and public policy, and the state of the telecommunications industry. Attendees will visit Capitol Hill for a briefing on how lawmakers are stimulating entrepreneurship.
This is the 50th anniversary of the SBA, and Mr. Barrera leads the national effort on behalf of the country’s small businesses to ensure fairness in the enforcement of federal regulations.
He received his law degree from the University of Texas School of Law in 1989 and a bachelor’s degree from Kansas State University in 1982. He is a member of the Missouri Bar Association, Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association and Hispanic Bar Association, and is a former member of the Texas Bar Association. His legal experience includes service as a prosecutor in Jackson County, Mo. He is the former chairman and president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Greater Kansas City.
About the Emerging Business Forum (www.emergingbusinessforum.org)
The Emerging Business Forum, created by the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority in 2001, specializes in building partnerships between emerging enterprises and established businesses and government agencies.
EBF2003 has a strong coalition of private sector and government sponsors: Verizon Communications, Maden Technologies, Capital One Financial, ExxonMobil, Deloitte & Touche, The Washington Business Journal, McGuireWoods LLP, Pepper Hamilton LLP and National-Louis University. Public sector sponsors to date are the U.S. Commerce Department, the Commonwealth of Virginia, the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority and the Montgomery County (Md.) Department of Economic Development.
About the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority (www.fairfaxcountyeda.org)
The Fairfax County Economic Development Authority promotes Fairfax County, Virginia, as a business and technology center. The FCEDA offers a wide range of free services to help companies locate and expand into the U.S. market. The FCEDA has marketing offices in London, Frankfurt, and Tokyo.
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