RALEIGH – The 28th CED Life Science Conference is again set to showcase the Triangle’s innovative entrepreneurial companies working on delivering cures and treatments to patients, improving the efficiency and precision of healthcare delivery and agricultural yields, and enhancing the quality and longevity of human life this week.

But this year, there’s a twist.

The Council for Entrepreneurial Development, the nonprofit that organizes the annual event, has rescheduled their CED Tech Conference to immediately precede the CED Life Science Conference after the 2018 event was postponed due to Hurricane Florence in September.

The CED Tech Conference runs February 25 and 26, and according to CED, all conference registrations were automatically transferred to the new dates.  The organization still expects more than 800 attendees for the 34th Tech Conference organized by the Durham-based entrepreneurial support organization.

“The CED Tech Conference is unique in its ability to attract attendees from across the country, secure thought leaders within the Tech Industry to present to our audience, and showcase the state’s most noteworthy ventures that are quickly gaining traction in our region,” said Ravila Gupta, president and CEO of CED in September.

Speakers headlining the event include local investor Jason Caplain, general partner of Bull City Venture Partners, which postponed their own annual venture capital conference in early March to enable CED to reschedule the Tech Conference, and Susan Bihler, partner at New York-based Catalyst Investors, Vanessa Larco, partner at NEA.  Entrepreneurs and startup executives on the speaker list also include Mike Praeger, co-founder and CEO of AvidXchange, Oliver Schabenberger, executive vice president, COO, and CTO of SAS, and Jennifer Kaelin, CFO of Pendo.

On the heels of the rescheduled CED Tech Conference, the organization will launch the CED Life Science Conference, taking place on February 26 and 27 in partnership with the North Carolina Biotechnology Center and NCBIO.

This year’s CED Life Science Conference includes updates from “alumni” companies, keynote addresses, and panels built around critical business processes for life science companies.

Terry-Ann Burrell, managing director at J.P Morgan and Laura Deming, a partner at The Longevity Fund, are among the investors slated to speak at the event.  Neal Fowler, CEO of Liquidia, Alex Sapir, president and CEO of Dova Pharmaceuticals, and Mark Velleca, CEO of G1 Therapeutics, are among the speakers set to present at the conference.

“CED should be so proud of the welcoming, gathering, supportive nature of what it has built,” said Max Wallace, CEO of Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure (ABC²), who was named the recipient of the 2018 Life Science Leadership Award at last year’s conference.  “It is the reason this is one of the world’s great technology regions.”