2011 ‘boot camp’ for entrepreneurs March 24-25

Registration is now open for the 2011 Stonyfield Farm Entrepreneurship Institute, a two-day “boot camp” of networking, panels and speakers designed to inspire and help community-minded entrepreneurs grow their businesses. Presented in partnership with Stonyfield Farm Inc., the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire and the Whittemore School of Business and Economics, the institute will be held March 24-25 at the Grappone Conference Center in Concord. New Hampshire Business Review is media sponsor of the event.Two keynote speakers will be featured at the boot camp: Bert Jacobs, co-founder of the $100 million Life is Good apparel and accessories company, and Gary Hirshberg, chief executive of Stonyfield Farm and founder of the conference.Jacobs’s Boston-based company, which was launched in 1994, now sells its products to 4,500 retail stores nationwide and in 30 countries around the world. Hirshberg, who first conceived the idea for the conference in 1998, designed the institute as a forum for entrepreneurs to learn about the fundamental aspects of growing an enterprise. Encouraged to attend is anyone wanting to make money while improving their community, including high-level executives at for-profit and nonprofit companies, socially responsible investors and business owners and emerging entrepreneurs. In addition to a finance panel on raising early and second-stage capital, sessions will be held on the topics of finance, marketing and work-life balance. Participants are encouraged to submit case studies of their business challenges concerning these topics, six of which will be selected and presented to a panel for feedback and advice. Cost to attend is $250, which includes the program, Thursday lunch and dinner and Friday breakfast and lunch. Limited scholarships are available; the deadline to apply for a scholarship and submit a case study is Feb. 28. Deadline to register at the Courtyard Marriott is March 3, and institute registration deadline is March 11. Additional sponsors include Citizens Bank, K&L Gates, Sheehan Phinney Bass + Green, ADP, Checkmate Payroll Services, the New Hampshire Community Development Finance Authority, Devine Millimet, Hinckley, Allen & Snyder LLP, and Preti Flaherty. Also serving as a media sponsor is Inc.com, which will stream the institute live online. For more information and to register, visit carseyinstitute.unh.edu/SEI.html, or contact Susan Colucci at susan.colucci@unh.edu or 603-862-2821 for more information. – KATHLEEN CALLAHAN