American City Business Journals

Chris Baysden

CED Partners With 919 Marketing to Promote I2I Initiative to Area Enterpreneurs

Nine One Nine Marketing Company, a privately held, Triangle-area marketing and public relations consulting firm, announced today it has signed an agreement with the Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) to assist in promoting the organization's Innovation to Impact (I2I) programs, following on the heels of a successful I2I campaign that raised $4.5 million to make those programs possible. 919 Marketing will help build awareness amongst North Carolina entrepreneurs and promote participation in the programs.

The Council for Entrepreneurial Development, located in Research Triangle Park, N.C., is a private, non-profit organization formed in 1984 to stimulate the creation and growth of high-impact companies in the greater Research Triangle region. CED provides education, mentoring and capital formation resources to new and existing high-growth entrepreneurs through annual conferences, seminars, workshops and monthly programs on entrepreneurial management and finance. CED is the largest entrepreneurial support organization in the nation with more than 4,000 members representing 1,100 entrepreneurial companies, financiers and professional firms.

"We want to see great entrepreneurs starting and running terrific North Carolina based companies," said David Chapman, CEO of 919 Marketing Company. "Our role in the I2I promotion is to make sure that entrepreneurs throughout North Carolina are educated about, aware and taking advantage of CED's entrepreneurial support systems."

The goals of the I2I program are to protect and enhance the area's leadership role in business, accelerate the growth of entrepreneurial companies, stimulate new business creation and increase job opportunities. The most recent initiative is a leadership and management development program, a series of seminars aimed at entrepreneurs of maturing companies hosted by Dr. Gerald Bell.Dr. Bell is a professor at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina and has been a leading consultant to major business organizations throughout the world for more than 35 years.

"We've been tracking the strong brand-building work 919 Marketing has done for several of our CED members," said Monica Doss, CED executive director, on the partnership with 919 Marketing. "The company is a strong supporter of CED and has proactively connected area companies with CED programs. Now they are helping us reach even deeper into the North Carolina entrepreneurial community to encourage emerging growth and established companies to take full advantage of the rich roster of CED programs made possible by the I2I campaign."

For 919 Marketing, this is just an extension of the work the company has done with CED members such as Alpheon Corporation and Springboard Hosting.

"We have been active supporters of the CED since our inception, and have seen the impact CED programs can make to accelerate a company's business growth," said Chapman. "Many of our clients are CED members, so we know how to get companies involved in the I2I initiative."

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