The best of the Mid West’s entrepreneurial and business community will have the opportunity to link with private investors from a range of different enterprises and markets as part of the Greater Geraldton Investor Showcase.

Forming part of the Greater Geraldton Growth Plan, the event kicks off on Friday 9 December and is a collaboration between the City of Greater Geraldton, Mid West Development Commission, US Embassy Canberra and US Consulate Perth.

With the aim to connect Mid West enterprises with private investors, entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to hear from, and pitch ideas to renowned national and global innovation leaders about their entrepreneurship and journey.

City of Greater Geraldton Mayor Shane Van Styn said the event will be highly influential in launching new and exciting ventures in the Mid West.

“The Investor Showcase is just the first step in our journey to bringing more wealth to our region,” he said.

“This event presents a great opportunity for those who are looking to start or create a new venture in the Mid West and this aims to give them support.

“We want to continue to support new developments and to become an investment-ready region, and this is one of the ways we are facilitating that.”

Geraldton is the first regional centre in Australia to host an Investor Showcase and it will be attended by leading multi-national professionals and investors including Bill Tai- Venture capitalist & co-founder of the West Tech Fest and MaiTai Global, Larry Lopez –Chairman of the OzAPP Awards advisory committee and partner at Australian Venture Consultants, Amanda Price - Head of high growth ventures at KPMG, Ben Cooper - Innovation partner at Tricky Jigsaw and Brendan Yell - APAC Startups Lead at IBM.

Mayor Van Styn said the Greater Geraldton Growth Plan would play a very influential role in the future on the region.

“As part of the Growth Plan, our goal is to have a globally recognised, resilient regional economy and the Showcase perfectly aligns with attracting investments and innovation to the Mid West,” he said.

“It is important for us that the Growth Plan isn’t a document that sits of the shelf, this is a plan that is in action.”

The event has been in the works for more than three months with coaching and programs that identifies, filters and refines pitches of investment opportunities being presented to the investment group.

More than twenty local ventures have been through intensive preparation through the Groundswell, Catalyst and Youngpreneur programs.

The Showcase and Groundswell program extend the reach and impact of West Tech Fest, a celebrated innovation festival that is held in Perth each December. For the first time, Western Australia’s most innovative region, the Mid West, will be hosting participants, keynote speakers, investors, entrepreneurs and thought leaders from the West Tech Fest to share their knowledge with Mid West entrepreneurs.

Project Director Jason McFarlane said the event was one-of-a-kind.

“The Showcase will be an opportunity for Mid West entrepreneurs to expand their knowledge, collaborate and hopefully build lasting relationships with extremely influential and like-minded people from all over the globe,” he said.

“The event presents an unprecedented opportunity for Geraldton and the Mid West as a whole to position itself a centre for regional innovation.”

For more information on the event head to http://farlane.com.au/greater-geraldton-investment-showcase/