Athena has assembled an expert panel of entrepreneurs, CEOs and venture capitalists to share best practices and strategies that help women entrepreneurs attract otherwise difficult to access funding opportunities.
The panel will highlight how women in growth-oriented, venture capital-funded companies are achieving success, how they are changing the paradigm for future women entrepreneurs, and where and how to find funding alternatives.

The event will also showcase three emerging companies and their women founders who will engage in lightning pitches for funding before the panel. Everyone will benefit from the tips, advice and feedback received by the emerging companies.

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When: March 11, 2015, 5pm–8pm
Where: Green Acre, Campus Pointe – 10300 Campus Point Drive, San Diego, CA, 92121, United States
ADMISSION – $40/MEMBERS & $60/GUESTS

Power Panel:
Lori Steele Contorer, Founder/CEO, Everyone Counts. Steele is the world’s top expert in election modernization, pioneering the adoption of software as a service and bringing proven state of the art technologies, already proven in other mission-critical industries, to make elections more affordable, accessible, transparent, and secure.

Allison Long Pettine, Founder/President, Crescent Ridge Partners. Pettine’s venture fund provides seed capital to early stage startups. She actively invests in entrepreneurs developing disruptive technologies to help them build successful and sustainable companies.

Laurie Peterson, Founder, Build and Imagine. Peterson is an award-winning toy designer with a decade of experience designing and marketing toys. Her products have won top awards including “Most Educational Toy of the Year” and “Best Toy of the Year” from the Toy Industry Association.

Moderator:
Cheryl K. Goodman, Founder, Social Global Mobile LLC and host of StartMeUpLive, a show for Entrepreneurs

Pitch Round:
Adah Almutairi, PhD, Founder, eLux Medical. Dr. Almutairi is the inventor of NanoLipo™. She is a Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences and NanoEngineering at the University of California San Diego and Director of UCSD’s Center of Excellence in Nanomedicine and Engineering. Her own research group, the Laboratory for Bioresponsive Materials, creates novel smart materials for on-demand drug delivery, regeneration of damaged tissue, and safe image-based diagnosis.

Lana Feng, PhD, Founder/CEO, Personalized Diagnostics. Dr. Feng has spent 16 years in the biotech industry with experiences ranging from product development to commercialization and business development. Her expertise is in cancer therapeutics and diagnostics, companion diagnostics and personalized medicine. She founded Personalized Diagnostics, LLC in 2013 to focus on brokering strategic partnerships between the U.S. and Chinese biotech companies.

Megan Hall, CEO, Party Spark. Party Spark is an event-booking site similar to what Priceline is to the travel industry, but for events. Hall is a seasoned event planning professional who saw the need to be a consolidated resource for anyone planning an event looking for information about local event vendors.