Questions Sought for Conference’s Keynote Speakers

Submit your business questions and they could be answered by keynote speakers at the Los Angeles Times’ Small Business Strategies Conference this month.

Oct. 17 keynote speakers and their topics are:

* Kinko’s founder Paul Orfalea on how to balance your life with activities other than work.

* Business consultant Jack Trout on the need for simple business strategies in an increasingly complicated world.

* Black Enterprise magazine Publisher Earl Graves on business success in the next century, risk-taking and mastering new technology.

Oct. 18 speakers and their topics are:

* Educational software company owner Jan Davidson on how she took $6,000 and turned it into a business worth $1.5 billion.

* Nell Newman and Peter Meehan, co-founders of Newman’s Own Organics, on overcoming consumer resistance to organic products and on giving to charity even if you run a cash-strapped business.

Write your questions for these speakers and send them to small-business columnist Vicki Torres, Business Section, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053, or e-mail them to vicki.torres@latimes.com. They will be passed on to the keynoters, who will answer them as time permits at their conference sessions.

The conference, at the Los Angeles Convention Center, will offer more than 40 different panels in six subject tracks with more than 100 speakers, along with an exhibit hall, networking opportunities and free advice sessions.

For more information on the conference, go to the event’s Web site at https://www.latimes.com/sbsc or call (800) 350-3211.