Wichita State University’s Center for Entrepreneurship in the W. Frank Barton School of Business -- along with co-sponsors Mitchell & Richards, Intrust Bank, Preferred Health Systems, Hinkle Law Firm, Gary Parker and Delta Dental of Kansas – will host Peter Weigand, chairman and CEO of Skipping Stone, as the keynote speaker of the annual Center for Entrepreneurship Banquet.

The public is invited to attend the banquet, at 6 p.m. Friday, April 29, at the Hyatt Regency Wichita. Tickets are $35 each, or tables for eight can be purchased for $240.

Reservations can be made by contacting the Center for Entrepreneurship at (316) 978-3000 or www.wichita.edu/CFEBanquet.

Please RSVP by 4 p.m. Thursday, April 21.

The banquet comes as the conclusion of the fifth annual statewide Shocker Business Plan Competition, hosted by the Center for Entrepreneurship. The competition is designed to encourage student innovation and venture creation by providing a forum where students can present new business ideas to local business and community leaders.

Winners of the competition will be announced at the banquet, with a total of $15,000 in prize money.

Skipping Stone is a Boston-based energy consultant company. Since graduating from WSU in 1981, Weigand has been CEO of three other companies before Skipping Stone.

He has written three energy textbooks and been published in Forbes and Business Week and in 2002 was named Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young.

Weigand is also on WSU’s Center for Entrepreneurship Advisory Board.