Southland

Small Business, Big Meeting: More than 1,000 small-business owners and operators are expected to attend organizing conferences in California this week in preparation for the White House Conference on Small Business in June. The state conferences--Tuesday at Los Angeles’ Century Plaza Hotel and Thursday at San Francisco’s Hyatt Regency Airport Hotel--will allow business owners and operators to elect 108 members of the 163-member California delegation that will attend the national conference. The state conventions will also give California delegates a start on putting together recommendations for the nationwide conference. That gathering, June 11-15 in Washington, will allow businesses throughout the country with fewer than 500 employees to help propose small-business policy changes to the Clinton Administration and Congress.