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Photo courtesy of Birmingham Venture Club

The Venture Club’s 32 Annual Meeting will give attendees a huge opportunity to network with high profile entrepreneurs, corporate and community leaders as well as with economic development leaders at the Sheraton Birmingham on Dec. 7 at 10:30 am – 1:00 PM. Tickets are $50 and can be purchased on the Birmingham Venture Club website.

“The Birmingham Venture Club’s Annual Meeting is Alabama’s premier event each year for entrepreneurs, investors, and service providers. This year we have we have a world renowned entrepreneur, innovator, and speaker giving our keynote address.” – Gary York, president, Birmingham Venture Club.

Spark Match Pitch Competition

The event is geared toward entrepreneurs and the entrepreneur- minded and has a long history of producing innovative outcomes through its Spark Match tournament-style pitch competition. Applicants have competed for the last couple of months in the pitch competition and the Championship round will reveal the winner at the Annual meeting.

York added, “Spark Match has generated tremendous interest in the community as a way to introduce promising companies. The audience votes for the winner, and we have seen some razor close results. The companies receive great exposure for their ideas, and some outstanding feedback from our community.”

In addition to the Spark Match Pitch Competition, the John S. Jemison, Jr. Venture Award will be given to Birmingham’s high quality, fast growth companies who demonstrate a viable business model, who is based in the seven county Birmingham area and who has at least one third-party investor.

The John S. Jemison, Jr. Award

According to the Venture Club website, John S. Jemison, Jr. is still remembered as one of the city’s most outstanding businessmen and leaders. Born in Birmingham in 1908, he graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1931 and began his career as a loan officer with today’s Chase Manhattan of New York. He later moved to Goldman, Sachs & Co., New York, one of the largest underwriters of industrial securities in the U.S.

In 1947, Mr. Jemison returned to Birmingham—where he was resident partner at Marx & Co., investment bankers, of Birmingham and New York City. In 1955, Mr. Jemison left Marx & Co. to form Jemison Investment Co., Inc. From that point until his death in 1988, he truly earned the title of “deal maker.”

“The Jemison Award is a coveted award for high growth companies in our community. Past winners represent a who’s who of leading companies in Alabama,” said York.

Author Mark Roberge Annual Meeting Keynote Speaker

Mark Roberge, former chief revenue officer of Hubspot’s Sales Division and author of the bestselling book, The Sales Acceleration Formula will be the keynote speaker for the Annual Meeting. In his book, he teaches entrepreneurs how to use data, technology, and inbound selling to take a start-up from $0 to $100 Million. Still active with a number of startups as a board of directors member, advisory board member and angel investor, Roberge is currently a professor in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at the Harvard Business School.

About the Birmingham Venture Club

The Birmingham Venture Club is Alabama’s oldest and largest association of venture capital community professionals. Their annual meeting is the state’s largest gathering of venture capitalists—as well as their related network of entrepreneurs, professional services firms and others—in Alabama.

About Gary York, President of the Birmingham Venture Club

Help Lightning’s CEO Gary York serves as president of the Birmigham Venture Club board. He told Bham Now that he is a serial entrepreneur and technologist with a track record of starting and growing software and services technology companies. His background also includes technical and executive positions with leading technology companies in Boston, Silicon Valley and Alabama. His company Help Lightning is a leading innovator in mobile augmented reality. York is a winner of the Smithsonian Innovation Award and an EDPA Lifetime Achievement Award for Innovation.

Get your tickets now for the Birmingham Venture Club’s 32nd Annual Meeting.