As I mentioned in the blog a few times this week, the fact that we are transitioning from carefree summer days to back-to-school time is weighing heavily on my mind, because in about 10 days I am going to find myself back in a classroom at Georgetown Law co-teaching a course about the exemptions from registration in the Securities Act of 1933. For reasons that I cannot really explain, I always get very nervous about speaking in front of students in the classroom, even though I am very much at ease speaking to a large group of professionals at our October Conferences or at other securities regulation programs. This nervousness prompts me to over-prepare for class, even though I could probably teach the course in my sleep at this point. As part of that preparation, I am always looking for current developments that can convey to the students the state of the capital markets and the ongoing debate about how best to facilitate capital-raising. Fortunately, there has been no shortage of current events to talk about concerning capital-raising and exempt offerings over the past five years!

For example, last month, the SEC’s Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation hosted policy roundtables on reexamining the IPO on-ramp and reassessing the framework for small public companies. During these roundtables, the panelists discussed how to improve the IPO process to encourage companies to go public, as well as potential changes that would encourage more companies to stay public. The video and transcript for the panel “IPO Policy Roundtable: Reexamining the IPO On-Ramp” and the video and transcript for the panel “Small Cap Policy Roundtable: Reassessing the Framework for Small Public Companies” are now available on the SEC’s website, so check them out today.

– Dave Lynn