DETROIT – A popular day-long conference for emerging entrepreneurs in Southeast Michigan is returning this year to Wayne State University on May 25-26. The free conferences are tailored toward individuals who missed the program last year.

The FastTrac to the Future conferences will host about 1,000 attendees over the two-day event, bringing together displaced workers, the unemployed and people looking for alternative employment options. The conferences are from 7:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. in Wayne State University?s McGregor Memorial Conference Center. Individuals seriously exploring entrepreneurship and undaunted by the risks will find a wealth of guidance and resources during planned breakout sessions.

Local and national experts will discuss the challenges of starting a new business in seven different session topics on entrepreneurship, including:

Financing options for startups

Franchising

Intellectual property do?s and don?ts

Service and lifestyle businesses

Finding your role in a startup

Attendees will have the opportunity to talk individually with advisors about their business goals and explore suitable entrepreneurial training programs like the award-winning FastTrac, a premiere business development program that has been operating for 15 years. FastTrac is comprised of quick, intensive 3-to-10-week training initiatives for unemployed or underemployed individuals seriously considering entrepreneurship instead of finding another job.

Pulitzer Prize nominee, vocal community advocate and successful entrepreneur Clifton Taulbert will kick off the conferences with a unique message of empowerment and hope for Detroit entrepreneurs. Taulbert, hailed by Time magazine as ?one of the nation?s outstanding entrepreneurs,? received inspiration and encouragement from the elders he knew in the Mississippi Delta where he grew up.

In 1994, Taulbert founded the Building Community Institute, which leads sessions that seek to engage professional workplaces in the process of building community as an investment opportunity. The Building Communities Institute is a partner in a Kauffman Foundation project with the Entrepreneurial Learning Initiative, LLC, an organization that provides interactive real-world entrepreneurship education programs for individuals and organizations worldwide. Taulbert is the author of a distinguished list of books including the Pulitzer Prize-nominated The Last Train North and the best-selling Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored, which was made into a critically acclaimed movie.

FastTrac to the Future, which was fund FastTrac to the Future, which was funded in 2009 by the New Economy Initiative in partnership with the Kansas City-based Marion Ewing Kauffman Foundation, aims to create 1,200 new startups over three years.

The program?s breakout sessions will give guidance and resources to people seriously exploring the promise of entrepreneurship and who are ready to learn strategies around some of the pitfalls. This includes displaced workers, the unemployed and people looking for alternative employment options.

Additionally, on May 24, TechTown will host two half-day programs called Navigating the FastTrac for approximately 1,000 entrepreneurs who have already graduated from entrepreneurial training programs since the FastTrac to the Future initiative began in the summer of 2009. The three days will see the gathering of 2,000 entrepreneurs who will reshape the economic landscape of Southeast Michigan.

Advanced registration is required. To register online, click on Wayne.Edu/faststrac

a>>