Fundraising was also one of the underlying themes of the Enterprise Development Corp.’s all-day Emerging Technology Business Showcase on Friday, where 18 South Florida startups presented their pitch decks to investors, mentors and fellow entrepreneurs from the stage of a Hilton Hotel ballroom in Deerfield Beach. The presenting companies were:

 Rob Strandberg, president and CEO  of the Enterprise Development Corporation (EDC), a nonprofit that has been helping South Florida's emerging technology companies launch and grow for more than a decade, said the format was changed this year in order to give the entrepreneurs more time to present their companies. Each got about 12 minutes on stage to make their presentations and field questions. There were also two large rooms where the teams could exhibit and plenty of time to network (shown in pictures above). "We hoped to engage the audience so they could really get to know some great entrepreneurs,” Strandberg said.

The presenters ranged from a college student team, DormDuels, to several serial entrepreneurs and spanned many industries. Some had already had success at raising money -- Linguasys and Neocis have already raised more than $1 million, for instance, while others were well into their seed rounds. Some investors I talked to in the networking breaks, the lunch and cocktail hour said they liked the new format and the mix of presentations and saw some interesting prospects in the bunch. Several entrepreneurs said they left with meetings with investors on their calendars. Can't ask for a better marker for success than that!

 A panel of a venture capitalist, angel investors and a founder (pictured at left) — John Duffy of3Cinteractive, Raj Kulkarni ofNew World Angels, Richard Licursi of venVelo fund in Orlando and Casey A. Swercheck of the  — provided advice on raising money and debated the current state of the industry during the luncheon.

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