The MIT Enterprise Forum Central Coast in partnership with UCSB’s Technology Management Program will address important changes in venture investing at 5 p.m. Wednesday in UCSB’s Corwin Pavilion.

Three investment experts will participate in “Raising Venture Capital: Some of the Important Rules Have Changed!” and discuss how the economic climate and changes to venture capital criteria made one of the most important steps in starting a new company more complicated.

Keval Desai, partner of InterWest Partners, will discuss his firm’s approach to venture investing. Before InterWest, Desai was a Google executive in charge of product development and a venture investor with two firms, Onset and Morgan Stanley Venture Partners.

Lance Helfert, West Coast Asset Management co-founder and president, will talk about private equity. Before founding WCAM with Paul Orfalea, Helfert managed a $1 billion portfolio at Wilshire Associates and was a strategic financial planner at ML Stern & Co.

Mike Panesis, president of the Westlake/Santa Barbara Network of Tech Coast Angels, will discuss angel investing in technology-focused industries. Panesis was formerly an IT executive at Semtech and a management consultant with Deloitte & Touche.

William Benjamin, founder of FirstCall and Investext, will moderate the event. Randy Churchill, director of emerging company services for PricewaterhouseCoopers, will join Benjamin in presenting Central Coast venture investing data from his company’s “Money Tree Report.”

An hour of networking and a buffet dinner will begin at 5 p.m. The speaker program will begin at 6 p.m., capped off with a question-and-answer period.

Tickets cost $30 in advance, $15 for students and $40 at the door. Parking costs $3. Click here for more information.

— Noozhawk business writer Alex Kacik can be reached at akacik@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.