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Investors Choice Venture Capital Conference in Utah Draws Ire

The upcoming investment conference in Midway, Utah, run by the Wayne Brown
Institute, the Investors Choice Venture Capital Conference http://www.venturecapital.org/utah/ , has drawn the
ire of a high profile technology pundit, Jason Calacanis.

Calacanis, who
is in the midst of a campaign to convince angel groups and conferences to
abandon charging startup companies to pitch their firms, highlighted the
conference in a post today on his personal blog. Brad Bertoch of the Wayne
Brown Insitute, in response, said "I concur with (Calacanis) that many
‘pay to play’ conferences are not very rewarding experiences, especially
if the entrepreneur is expecting a check," and also speculated that
Calacanis "probably has us confused with any number for profit
organizations that have a business model based on charging entrepreneurs
fees for all sorts of things, including pitching."

Bertoch explained that
the Institute is a 501c3 nonprofit, and has been helping entrepreneurs in
Utah for 26 years. Calacanis–known for his often controversial views, and
who also helps run the TechCrunch50 conference–has called out a number of
other angel groups and conferences, most notably the angel group the
Keiretsu Forum, for their practice in charging entrepreneurs to pitch
their firms.

Bertoch said "The only way to get rich off entrepreneurs is
picking winners, investing in them and helping them grow their business by
continually adding value."

(Thanks to http://www.techrockies.com for passing this along.)

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