OPEN Event From American Express and SCORE – A Free Resource For Small Businesses!

As mentioned in our post funding your small businesses with other people’s money, grant money is generally hard to come by for small businesses. Services Corps Of Retired Executives (SCORE), a volunteer based non-profit organization on the other hand is a very good resource for small business owners who need mentoring. Mentoring is a necessity for most first-time business owners and SCORE offers business counseling for free through their nearly 400 offices spread throughout the country. A few critical items for success that are missing in that type of a setup is actual contact with other new business owners, the power of networking with new business owners, and awareness about the huge industry that is around that gears toward servicing small business owners.

The OPEN Event sponsored by American Express and SCORE is an ideal resource as it affords the chance to communicate with other people in the exact same situation as you are. Further, the American Express sponsor ship should help with providing exposure to the services that are available. The first such event was a sellout in Orlando, Florida in 2007. This year, there are three such events across the country, the first of which was a sellout out on March 6th 2008 in Atlanta, Georgia. The timings, locations and the agenda of the remaining events for this year follow:

March 26, 2008 - Chicago, Illinois
April 23, 2008 - Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas

9:00 AM – 9:45 AM	Business owner check-in and assignments (Continental breakfast and networking)
9:45 AM – 9:55 AM	Welcome and opening remarks
10:00 AM – 10:30 AM	Speed Coaching Session #1, Workshops A, C
10:30 AM – 10:50 AM	Networking coffee break
10:50 AM – 11:20 AM	Speed Coaching Session #2, Workshops C, D
11:20 AM – 11:40 AM	Networking coffee break
11:40 AM – 12:10 PM	Speed Coaching Session #3, Workshops A, B
12:15 PM – 2:00 PM	Luncheon, keynote address and facilitated networking
2:15 PM – 2:45 PM	Speed Coaching Session #4, Workshops C, D
2:45 PM – 3:00 PM	Networking coffee break
3:00 PM – 3:30 PM	Speed Coaching Session #5, Workshops A, B
3:30 PM – 4:00 PM	Closing remarks, prize drawings and networking
4:00 PM	Event concludes

From the agenda, it looks like a fun event for business owners who are located near Chicago or Dallas.