IMPACT 2012 Venture Summit kicks off in election’s wake

A gathering of the region’s CEOs and venture capitalists kicks off Wednesday at The Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia.

And organizers say the timing couldn’t be better.

“Most CEOs just want certainty,” said A.J. Jordan, event chair of the IMPACT 2012 Venture Summit. “I think [the local venture community] is in a little bit of a stall because of questions over what’s going to happen on Election Day and what kind of policies will be in place moving forward.”

Jordan says it isn’t so much a matter of party politics; it’s that businesspeople across the mid-Atlantic region want to be able to plan.

“They’re all struggling with, ‘What’s going to happen?'” Jordan said. “So I think they’ll have a sense of, ‘OK, election’s behind us … now we know what we have to deal with and we can go out and do business.'”

Almost 1,100 people are planning to attend the two-day summit, including about 200 CEOs and 100 investors.

Jordan says the annual meeting has proved to be a good venue for getting deals done.

“There’ll be a lot of investors sitting in those rooms, and there’s potential that those investors will develop relationships with those companies,” said Jordan.

For information on how to attend, visit the Greater Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technologies website.