Florida Business Incubator Association to host Bi-Annual Conference at University of Florida’s Florida Innovation Hub

ORLANDO, Fla., ---- The Florida Business Incubation Association (FBIA), a professional network that includes 28 business incubators located throughout Florida, will host its bi-annual meeting on Thursday, June 7, at the Innovation Hub at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Dr. Tom O’Neal, president of the Florida Business Incubation Association and founder and executive director of the UCF Business Incubation Program, said nearly 30 business incubation programs in Florida will be represented at the meeting.

The conference will feature presentations on crowd source funding for startup businesses, Enterprise Florida programs to support and strengthen startup enterprises, global marketing, intellectual property, business models and commercialization of public research, O’Neal said.

Presenters include Jay Robinson, Director of Capital Programs at Enterprise Florida; Jamie Grooms, CEO of the Florida Institute for Commercialization of Public Research; Brian R. Stanton, Ph.D., former Director of the Division of Policy at the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Technology Transfer; Jorge Arce, Office Director of the U.S. Commercial Service; and Keith Allaun, managing director of Critical Point Solutions, LLC.

Dr. O’Neal said the conference will include tours of both the Innovation Hub and the University of Florida’s Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator.

“This is the largest gathering of business incubation professionals in Florida, and our mission is to support the development of start-up firms that can create jobs, revitalize neighborhoods, commercialize new technologies, and strengthen local and national economies,” Dr. O’Neal said.

“The Florida Business Incubation Association has grown steadily since its launch in 1998 and together we rank as one of the most important economic development initiatives in Florida,” he said.

About the Florida Business Incubation Association (FBIA)
Since its founding in 1998, the Florida Business Incubation Association has held bi-annual statewide meetings and been a unified voice for all the Florida incubators. FBIA plays an integral role in developing and/or identifying programs that help provide greater service to incubator clients. FBIA teams up annually with the National Business Incubation Association (NBIA) to award conference scholarship opportunities to Florida incubation professionals. Please visit FBIA on www.fbiaonline.org or on Facebook on www.facebook.com/FLBIA

About the UCF Business Incubation Program
Since its founding in 1999, the UCF Business Incubation Program has helped more than 200 emerging companies (including more than 134 current clients) create over $363 million in annual total economic output and more than 3,120 new jobs (taking direct and indirect and induced impact into account) with an average salary of $59,000. With ten facilities across the Greater Orlando community, the Business Incubation Program is a collaboration in economic development among the University of Central Florida, Orange County, the City of Orlando, Seminole County, the City of Apopka, the City of Winter Springs, the City of Sanford, Lake County, the City of Leesburg, Osceola County, the City of Kissimmee, City of St. Cloud, Volusia County and the Florida High Tech Corridor Council. For more information about the Program and its clients and graduates, please visit www.incubator.ucf.edu and UCFBIP on Facebook, on www.facebook.com/ucf4bip.