Wisconsin Technology Council: MERLIN Mentors progress will be featured Tuesday at Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium

A year ago, a handful of local entrepreneurs decided to create a program that would help newer, early-stage entrepreneurs achieve their business goals. Today, Madison Entrepreneur Resource, Learning and Innovation Network, otherwise known as MERLIN, includes 68 mentors, 17 mentoring teams and, scores of MERLIN mentees.

As part of the 2009 Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium, MERLIN mentors and entrepreneurs will share their experiences, discuss what they have learned, and suggest where the organization is going as part of a special panel entitled “MERLIN Mentors: Lessons learned after year one.”

The panel will take place on 1:40 p.m. Tuesday at the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center, Madison. Panelists include:

* Toni Sikes, chair of MERLIN’s governance and membership committee, and senior advisor for Gruppo, Levey & Co.

* Terry Sivesend, MERLIN director, and successful serial entrepreneur.

* Katie Colbert, founder of Sharecipe

* Farhan Ahmad, co-founder of ShopFiber.

Allen Dines, assistant director at the UW-Madison Office of Corporate Relations, one of MERLIN’s founding organizations, will moderate the discussion.

Another example of how the UW-Madison campus is helping to build an entrepreneurial culture is the “First Look Forum,” which will be held in back-to-back sessions, 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. Wednesday, also at Monona Terrace. These are presentations of pre-commercial, campus-based discoveries.

Online registration for the conference is closed but walk-in registrations may be accepted at Monona Terrace. Learn more at http://www.wisconsintechnologycouncil.com/events/earlystage/