The nation’s top entrepreneurs will gather this week to be recognized for their entrepreneurship, growth and success during the U.S. Small Business Administration’s National Small Business Week celebration, May 18-20, 2011, in Washington, D.C.

Under the theme “Empowering Entrepreneurs,” the three-day event at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and Conference Center will highlight business owners from 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, whose business achievements have contributed to job creation, the economy and to the nation’s recovery. The National Small Business Person of the Year will be named from this group on Friday, May 20.

Awards will also be presented for notable achievements in disaster recovery, government procurement, small business advocacy, and to top-performing SBA resource and lending partners.

Featured Speakers at National Small Business Week will include:

• Administrator Karen Mills, U.S. Small Business Administration

• Deputy Administrator Marie Johns, U.S. Small Business Administration

• Valerie B. Jarrett, Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama and Chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls

• U.S. Sen. Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island)

• U.S. Sen. Mary L. Landrieu (D-Louisiana)

• Gail McGovern, President and CEO, American Red Cross

• Cathy Hughes, Founder and Chairperson of Radio One Inc., and Chair of SBA’s Advisory Council on Underserved Communities

• Steve Case, Co-founder of AOL and Chair of Startup America Partnership

• Bill Rancic, Reality Show Star, Executive Producer and Author

• Seth Goldman, President and TeaEO, Honest Tea

National Small Business Week will also feature a series of small business forums that are open to the public. The forums address real-world topics that affect small businesses, including Growing Your Business While on the Go, Social Media, Exporting Tools for Success and Strategies for High Growth, High Impact Firms.
The public can register for the free forums onsite starting at 1:00 p.m. EDT Wednesday, May 18. Events during National Small Business Week can be viewed virtually through SBA’s free, live webcasting accessible online atwww.nationalsmallbusinessweek.com/webcast.php. Visitwww.NationalSmallBusinessWeek.comto register for forums, and for the full Small Business Week schedule. A list of the 2011 state winners can be found online at
http://nationalsmallbusinessweek.com/index.php?page=winners.