WASHINGTON – United States Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Chair Mary Landrieu, D-La., will host a Small Business Outreach Conference in Thibodaux, La., on Friday, October 16, 2009. The event is intended to assist small business owners looking to use federal and state small business assistance programs. The Committee will work with the Small Business Administration (SBA) and Louisiana Economic Development (LED) to provide brief overviews of SBA lending programs, federal contracting opportunities, LED’s Small and Emerging Business Development Program and other programs to help small businesses maintain and grow their businesses in this tough economic climate.

Officials from the SBA, LED and Louisiana Small Business Development Centers will join Sen. Landrieu’s staff, which includes Staff Director and Chief Legal Counsel Donald Cravins, Jr., a former State Senator from Louisiana, to discuss top concerns for entrepreneurs. The Committee held several similar outreach conferences in Lafayette, Lake Charles, Shreveport, Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Alexandria and plans to hold the an additional outreach fair in Monroe, La., by the end of the year.

The details for the Houma-Thibodaux Small Business Outreach Conference are as follows:

Friday, October 16, 2009
Registration at 8:00 am. CDT; Program runs from 9:00 am. – 12:00 p.m.
Bollinger Student Union Cotillon Ballroom
Nicholls State University
104 Ellendale Drive
Thibodaux, La. 70301