Government-Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation

The SEC hosts an annual forum that focuses on the capital formation concerns of small business. Called the "SEC Government-Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation," this gathering has assembled annually since 1982, as mandated by the Small Business Investment Incentive Act of 1980. A major purpose of the Forum is to provide a platform to highlight perceived unnecessary impediments to small business capital formation and address whether they can be eliminated or reduced. Each forum seeks to develop recommendations for government and private action to improve the environment for small business capital formation, consistent with other public policy goals, including investor protection. Participants in the Forum typically have included small business executives, venture capitalists, government officials, trade association representatives, lawyers, accountants, academics and small business advocates. In recent years, the format of the Forum typically has emphasized small interactive breakout groups developing recommendations for governmental action.

2012 Forum — The SEC has announced that it plans to host its 2012 Government-Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation on Thursday, November 15, 2012, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., at its headquarters at 100 F Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20549. The 2012 Forum will include both morning roundtable sessions and afternoon breakout groups. The roundtable sessions will be live video streamed on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov, beginning at 9:00 a.m. The afternoon breakout groups will be accessible by telephone conference call to pre-registered members of the public, but will not be video streamed.

Members of the public may attend the Forum in person without charge, but are asked to pre-register online.  Anyone wishing to participate in a breakout group meeting, either in person or by teleconference, must register online by November 12, 2012.  A day or so before the Forum, we will e-mail a call-in telephone number and access code to registrants who have indicated they plan to participate in a breakout group meeting by telephone conference call. You also may use the online registration form to let the SEC staff know you are interested in having your name on the mailing list for future Forums.

Please click here for online registration.

Press Release

To suggest topics and recommendations for facilitating small business capital formation to be considered at the 2012 Forum, please send them to the SEC Office of Small Business Policy at SmallBusiness@sec.gov or 100 F Street, N.E., Washington, DC 20549-3628. Questions may be directed to the Office of Small Business Policy at (202) 551-3460 or SmallBusiness@sec.gov.

Previous Forums — Final Reports of the SEC Government-Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation since June 1993.

http://www.sec.gov/info/smallbus/sbforum.shtml