New Address: Two Embarcadero Center, 8th floor, San Francisco, CA 94111     

Faces Awards Nominations Close Soon! Annual Meeting on June 7!

Nine Days Left to Nominate Your Face of Entrepreneurship

Nominate your successful clients for the Sixth Annual CAMEO Faces of Entrepreneurship Award Last year’s winners were Toni Ricci of Elite Dance and Performing Arts Center nominated by VEDC and Abraham Lopez of YucaTech Technology Solutions (see photo), nominated by Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center. This year it could be your client!

Legislators from the business owners’ districts will present the awards at our annual meeting. This is a great opportunity for your clients and helps us build strategic connections with our legislators. Award winners will be selected based on the following criteria: type of business, region, demonstrated growth and job creation, and contributions to their community. CAMEO covers travel costs to Sacramento.

Nominate your businesses by April 30, 2016.

Annual Meeting

Register for CAMEO’s Annual Member Meeting and Advocacy Day – June 7, 2016 at the Sacramento Sheraton.

We’re excited to bring back Dan Beam, a creative design-thinker, to lead this year’s annual meeting. He will guide us in viewing the tremendous changes happening in our economy, where they’re disruptive and what are the opportunities for our sector. We will discuss the NEW ERA of a Collaborative Economy and how that affects the business landscape and our work in the near future.

June 7, 2016
8:30 am – 5:00 pm
Sheraton Grand Sacramento
1230 J Street, Sacramento

The meeting will be a full day! We will hold our CAMEO member meeting, have a rich discussion with Dan Beam, celebrate our Faces of Entrepreneurship Award winners and then send you off to your legislators to educate them on responsible small business lending practices. Check out the Annual Meeting webpage for more information.

The Goodies

New opportunities for training, conference information, funding, scholarships, and other information that have crossed our desks since the last Must Know. I have posted a running tab of current Industry Goodies on the CAMEO website that lists items that were in past emails. Check it out to make sure you’re not missing anything, like grants whose deadlines are still alive!

For Your Client: Small Business Majority launched a weekly national webinar series (free). Access to Capital 101: Funding Options to Start and Grow Your Business is available on Wednesday, April 27, 2016, 11:00 AM Pacific.

PRIME Grant Opportunity: SBA has announced that it is taking applications for PRIME: Program for Investment in Microentrepreneurs Act. The deadline to apply for funding is April 29, 2016.

AEO Conference in DC: EconoCon25 gathers actors in the small business space who impact America’s smallest businesses and under-served entrepreneurs – lenders, nonprofit and for-profit service providers, advocates and policy makers, entrepreneurs, funders and investors – for meaningful dialogue about how to innovate faster, partner smarter, and execute better. Register today! Contact Shufina English for more information.

Cutting Edge Professional Development: CFED is hosting a five-part virtual Listening & Learning Series Exploring Financial Capability & Access for Entrepreneurs (register for all five at once). The next one is May 10 – ‘Mastering the Know-How: Financial Management Expertise & Advice for Entrepreneurs.’ You can learn more about the series on our website.

OFN Western Regional Meeting: Save June 29, 2016. The meeting will take place in Los Angeles, CA at Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Los Angeles Branch (950 S Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90015).

Take Action: We’re asking all of our members to hold district meetings with their California state representatives to inform California’s small business leaders and elected officials on what good capital looks like. We’ll follow up with meetings in Sacramento at our annual meeting. This is an issue they need to know about!