Science in the Triangle

North Carolina’s Research Triangle area is known as a research and development hub where several large companies have operations, including IBM, GlaxoSmithKline, Biogen Idec and Quintiles Transnational. But the area’s true strength lies in its many small companies, startups and mid-size businesses, where discoveries are turned into tomorrow’s products.

The Triangle is home to much of North Carolina’s biotech industry, which consists of about 500 companies employing more than 55,000. Also, the Triangle is developing into an East Coast hub for the video gaming industry with about 30 area companies that employ more than 1,000.

Many of the companies operating at the technological edge rely on the support of each other and entrepreneurship membership organizations to flourish.

Under the leadership of its new CEO Joan Siefert Rose, the Council for Entrepreneurial Development brought together 17 of these support organizations Wednesday in a new event called the CED Cafe. A crowd of about 130 packed the meeting room in Durham to listen to the five-minute presentations.

Here is the list of support organizations, offering help with anything from fund raising to finding board members to doing business in China, and not infrequently a free meal:

• Association for Corporate Growth
• Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals
• The Entrepreneurs’ Organization
• First Flight Venture Center
• Licensing Executives Society
• NC Biotechnology Center
• National Association of Corporate Directors
• National Association of Women Business Owners
• NC IDEA
• NC Biosciences Organization
• NC Chinese Business Association
• NC Technology Association
• Renewable Energy Business Network
• Small Business Technology Development Council
• Triangle Gaming Initiative
• The Indus Entrepreneurs
• Triangle Technology Executive Council