Small Business Opportunity Conference
Saturday, March 1, 2008
8:30 am - 2:30 pm
Northwestern University
School of Law, Atrium
375 East Chicago Avenue, Chicago, Illinois
The Small Business Opportunity Conference is Northwestern Law School’s annual conference exploring various entrepreneurship and small business issues. The Conference will be held on Saturday, March 1, 2008 and will feature Howard Tullman, JD ‘70 (a highly successful serial entrepreneur and founder, most recently, of Flashpoint Academy), as the keynote speaker, as well as panels and workshops covering several aspects of entrepreneurship. These include, among others, obtaining private equity and venture financing, leveraging intellectual property, and cutting edge real estate development.
The goal of the Conference is to provide its attendees with cutting-edge insight on entrepreneurship and small business issues, as well as opportunities to network with other participants in this vibrant sector of the economy. The Conference’s participants and attendees will consist of start-up executives, aspiring entrepreneurs, financiers, service-providers, thought leaders, and students from business and law schools.
The Conference is being hosted by Northwestern Law School's Small Business Opportunity Center ("SBOC") and organized by the Center's student board. The SBOC is a non-profit, student-based clinical program affiliated with the Bluhm Legal Clinic. The SBOC was one of the first transactional clinics of its kind at any major law school in the country. Founded in 1997, the SBOC has given law students, working under the supervision of attorneys with many years of corporate and transactional experience, the opportunity to provide legal counsel to hundreds of entrepreneurs and small businesses, on topics ranging from entity formation to licensing and franchising. For more information about the SBOC, please see www.sboc.org
DISTINGUISHED ENTREPRENEUR AWARD
Howard A. Tullman
President and CEO of Flashpoint Academy (www.flashpointacademy.com),
Chariman and CEO of Experiencia, Inc. (www.experiencia-world.com),
President Emeritus of Kendall College.
Northwestern University Law School is pleased to present its annual Distinguished Entrepreneur Award to Howard A. Tullman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Flashpoint Academy (www.flashpointacademy.com), Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Experiencia, Inc. (www.experiencia-world.com), and President Emeritus of Kendall College, in Chicago. Mr. Tullman is General Managing Partner for the Chicago High Tech Investors, LLC and a Director of The Cobalt Group (www.cobaltgroup.com) and Passage Events (www.passageevents.com) in Seattle. He is also a Trustee of WTTW in Chicago and an Adjunct Professor at Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management in Evanston, Illinois.
Mr. Tullman has over 30 years of management and turn-around experience and an extensive operations background in online services, large-scale information assembly and delivery systems, database design and the development, creation and production of all types and formats of multimedia content including CD-ROMs and DVDs. He has designed and developed interactive interfaces, computer games and other electronic entertainment, training products and services, and other information-based products and services.
After 10 years as a lawyer at Levy and Erens in Chicago, in 1980 Mr. Tullman founded CCC Information Services, Inc., a provider of information systems to the country’s largest property and casualty insurers. CCC successfully raised venture capital and subsequently completed an IPO in 1983 and several subsequent public offerings. Since taking CCC Information Services private in 1987, Mr. Tullman has founded or served as CEO or Board Chairman of eight entrepreneurial companies. In 1990, he also founded Eager Enterprises, a venture capital firm focused on the information industry. He is also active in the arts and has served on the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (1993 – 2001).
Mr. Tullman graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, with Honors, from Northwestern University. He also holds a J.D., with Honors, from Northwestern University School of Law.