ORLANDO, Fla. - Yesterday concluded our 2018 Small Business Leadership Conference.

Attendees began the day with a highly competitive Pitch the Editor Competition. Five conference attendees made three-minute pitches with stories about their business and customers to our judges Kristal Caron, owner and managing partner of CN Sports Group; Michelle Griffith, vice president of Boardroom PR; and Jeff Piersall, founder and CEO of SCB Marketing. Abraham Kamarck, CEO and founder of True Made Foods, won the competition and took home $5,000 in cash courtesy of the Jim Moran Institute. Abraham also won a feature story in i4 Business magazine and a full-ride scholarship to attend the Jim Moran Institute’s Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans Accelerate program taking place October 22-26, 2018.

Click here to view a photo gallery of Day 3's events.

One final breakout session was held in order to give attendees the opportunity to squeeze in a few more learning opportunities.

The conference concluded with a keynote presentation by FSU College of Business alumni and restauranteur, John Rivers, founder and CEO of 4 Rivers Smokehouse, an award-winning BBQ chain with locations in Florida and Georgia. Rivers, who left his position as president of a $1.5-billion-dollar healthcare company to open his restaurant, spoke about injecting passion into your business in order to ensure success.

For information about the 2019 Small Business Leadership Conference be sure to visit jmi.fsu.edu and follow us on social media for updates.

About the Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship
The Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship cultivates, trains and inspires entrepreneurial leaders through world-class executive education, applied training, public recognition and leading-edge research. Jim Moran was an automotive pioneer and an entrepreneur at heart, who at the age of 7, sold soda pop at sandlot baseball games in Chicago. With a career that spanned more than six decades, he built an amazing chronicle of achievements in the automobile industry. His vision for the Jim Moran Institute was to provide opportunities that would help others become more successful business owners. A 1995 contribution from Jim and Jan Moran and JM Family Enterprises established the Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship at the Florida State University College of Business. Since 2011, further enhancements to the Jim Moran Institute and its outreach have been made possible by Jan Moran and The Jim Moran Foundation.