Invest Atlantic, the pan-Atlantic conference for startups and investors, will open Wednesday in Moncton with a range of speakers from around the region and other startup centres.

The 2016 event – the first held outside Halifax – has assembled a group of speakers with the goal of helping all founders to understand the entire funding process. That is, companies regardless of their stage of development, can learn how to plan to raise capital, how to raise it, and what should be done after the deal closes.

“IA2016’s focus is two-fold: one to provide startups with the opportunity to hear directly from investors what today’s investors are looking for in companies,” said Bob Williamson, the President of the Jameson Group, which stages the event. “And secondly, it will help prepare them for early-, mid- and late-stage challenges by hearing from and meeting entrepreneurs who have been in the trenches and on the peaks."

Invest Atlantic will he held Wednesday and Thursday at the Delta Beauséjour in Moncton. You can register here.

The conference begins Wednesday with a series of seminars and Pitchcamp, a pitching event that has three tiers of competition, depending on the companies’ stage of development. The day will include a talk by Philippe LeBlanc, Co-Founder and CEO of Flixel.com, about his entrepreneurial journey.

The main conference on Thursday will be chaired by Francis McGuire, the founder of Major Drilling Group International Inc.

The other speakers at the event include: Sean Wise, Startup Mentor of the Year 2014 and Canada’s Startup Laureate for 2016-17; Sanjay Singal, the Canadian partner of 500 Startups; and Steven Abrams, Partner in the IT Venture Fund of BDC Capital.

The luncheon keynote will feature a discussion moderated by Jeff Harriman, Capital Market Specialist at Financial and Consumer Services Commission, on raising the second round of financing. The panelists are Abrams; Jeff White, Cofounder and COO of East Valley Ventures; and Ray Fitzpatrick, Investment Manager at the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation.