I dont think the location or type of venue matters much in your ability to pursue and negotiate opportunities for vendors, sponsors and or investors. The easiest to pursue is vendors - in fact most smaller events are paid for by the vendors and sponsorships from local organizations who want to reach your type of audience. Make a description of the type of crowd you will attract and then make a list of potential products/companies that might be interest in advertising there. Create and sell packages to them. That approach is probably much easier than pursuing a random investor whom you have negotiate a lot more than just the ad pricing and can delay things. Unless you know someone who can give you money w/ little questions asked then go for the vendor/sponsorship route.