If you’ve got a small business or start-up that needs investors, attending crowd funding and angel investing events will provide you the opportunity to meet with and market your ideas to potential investors. These events will also provide you the opportunity to learn from the successes of others who have “been there and done that,” not only what things they did right, but also what mistakes they made and overcame or are facing and looking for solutions to. Here’s a list of the top investor events this next couple of months where you can find investors that can cut a check for your business. We are proud to be able to work with a few of these event organizers.

FundingPost Venture Capital and Angel Events
Atlanta, March 28; Chicago, April 11; New York, April 18; Las Vegas, May 2

FundingPost has hosted over 220 sold-out venture events in 22 cities over the past 12 years. The Soho Loft is often speaking at their events. This year’s events will focus on early-stage venture investing – learn what it really takes to get investors to write you a check and pitch them on the spot. Very efficient events with Angels and VCs. The Feb. 7th event in NYC was a reverse pitch event at CS First Boston’s location Park and 23rd. 500 people had picked 9 out of 40 VCs and Angels they wanted to meet one-on-one. At arrival all entrepreneurs received ticket just like in the train station. When your number was called on a screen you went to your numbered booth and had a one-on-one with your pre-selected investor. Nifty.

Innovative Investing Symposium 2013 (IIS) at Thomson Reuters
Boston, April 3 – 5

The Soho Loft’s largest and most exciting event ever, the Innovative Investing Symposium 2013 is the premier capital market and startup event that is part of the Thomson Reuters PartnersConnect 2013 network of events, with over 2000+ participants last year composed of institutional investors, media, GPs and LPs. There are close to a dozen conferences happening simultaneously at Thomson Reuters. There are matching services of Limited Partners to General Partners of all sorts of funds. Angels and VCs are gathering in one conference room for exclusive showcase of their best investments while asking to be pitched by attending startups. Top US Crowd Fund Leaders of the world gather for one conference and Top 10 Crowd Funders SeedInvest, CrowdCube, EarlyShares, Crowd Valley, Grow VC, SoMoLend, CrowdSchools, CircleUp, Seedrs, Bolstr, Collaperty, Bishop Sampson of Kingonomics, WebFinancial, Gate Technologies share their success and challenges while discussing the top 25 crowd fund campaigns that netted over $1,000,000 each. You definitely must not miss this one!

International Conference on Business Incubation
Boston, April 7 – 10

Network with more than 500 business incubator managers and economic development professionals who will gather to explore strategies for entrepreneur support. The event will highlight dozens of educational sessions, success stories, keynote speakers, and incubator tours. Hawaii and Puerto Rico’s newest incubators principals are flying and incubators show case companies will be vying for the attention of investors. A must place to be if you want to interview incubators – they are all attending this one and most are attending the Thomson Reuters event in Boston days before.

LaunchFEST @ NAB
Las Vegas, April 9

Produced by the iHollywood Forum and AngelLaunch, this exciting event features a networking dinner, program and party, for entertainment, web, Internet, mobile and tech ventures and startups, and is held during the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) annual trade show which has 90000+ attendees. Certainly the center of entertainment. The dinner is key as the focus of the participants will be more relaxed and concentrated with dedicated investors.

2013 Angel Capital Association Summit – Navigating Change for Angel Success
San Francisco, April 17 – 19

Connect with several hundreds of the most active and sophisticated angels and angel group leaders in the world. These investors are top participants in the estimated $20 billion per year angel investing profession in the US. 500 Angels participated last year in Austin. These are the largest angel networks and the who-of-who in the industry. This is the Age of Angels and this is where you will find them including the super angels. This is the highest concentration of angels you will find. This is where angels go to evolve their networks but also showcase their companies and investments.

NAPEC Innovation Conference
New York, April 22

A gathering of 500+ innovation experts and pioneers in business and finance, all in one place in NYC! This is a great opportunity for leading and potential innovators to share their ideas. You will have speakers like Mohamed Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate in microfinance as well as Bill Gross and Mohamed El-Erian, CEO-s from PIMCO. Innovation will be the focus at this event which will have a low cost under $90 tickets and easy access. New York City events tend to get really big so prepare to study who you need to meet prior to the event.

New York Private Equity Forums
The Yale Club, New York, May 2

This is another world-class event sponsored by The Soho Loft. Network with over 150 investment professionals, top venture capitalists, business leaders and successful entrepreneurs. Improve the likelihood of your business getting funded soon. This event has been going strong for 10+ years at the Yale Club in NYC. There are close to 150 investor groups from angels to Venture Capitalists that regularly attend to listen to growing companies. Most companies attending are at Round B and C round fund raising levels and less for early startups. The space is elegant and attracts big Venture Capitalists. Ideal for Round B and C raises for companies and not for the light hearted startup entrepreneur.

 

2013 Angel Capital Expo – Silicon Valley
California, May 2

Right smack in the middle of where all things are tech, this expo brings together 300+ angel investors and entrepreneurs from a wide variety of different industries ranging from technology, life sciences, consumer products, real estate, financial services, social ventures and other segments with high growth potential. Really exciting!

EIS & Angel Investing – Adviser Showcase
London, May 9

This prestigious UK event will promote angel investing including mainstream EIS and Seed EIS, informing potential angel investors and their financial advisers of the benefits, pitfalls and tax reliefs available to assist with the process of angel investing.

Seattle Angel Conference
Seattle, May 16

The Seattle Angel Conference connects 150+ entrepreneurs and new angel investors and features a workshop on tips that entrepreneurs can employ to create and deliver powerful investor pitches and increase their chances of getting funded.

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Do you know of other crowd funding and angel investing events you’d like everyone to hear about? Feel free to share it here or let me know your comments.

This article is by David Drake, founder and chairman of LDJ Capital, a New York City-based private-equity firm, and of The Soho Loft Capital Creation Events, a corporate advisory services company with a global events and media platform.