Announcing the CloudBeat 2011 Innovation Showdown

At our new CloudBeat 2011 conference (Nov 30-Dec1), we’ll be holding an “Innovation Showdown” to showcase the coolest, most disruptive products leveraging the cloud.

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We’re opening the nomination process today, and we’ll be selecting 10 finalists on Oct 31 to present their products/services to the event’s full audience. The event will be at the Sofitel Hotel in Redwood City.

To be nominated, a company’s product or service will need to be leveraging the cloud in a disruptive way. The more revolutionary the idea, the more chance we’ll select them as a finalist.Nominations can include startups or established companies with brilliant new ideas. We’re giving special consideration to products that are new, or that haven’t been widely publicized yet.

We’re looking for products that will change how businesses serve customers, empower employees and deliver tangible value to investors.

Here’s how it will work. Finalists will have four minutes to showcase their innovative cloud technologies live at CloudBeat 2011. Live at the event, our team of sages — made up of industry experts, venture capitalists, and actual enterprise customers — will provide feedback on the products/services presented. Ultimately, our sages will recap the highlights of the competition and determine the winner.

The Showdown winner will be announced onstage at CloudBeat 2011 and will receive a VentureBeat editorial profile, introductions to investors and/or relevant potential customers in our network, and other prizes yet to be announced. Additionally, the audience will get to choose its favorite new product/service. The winner of the “People’s Choice” award will also be announced live onstage.

To submit your company/product for nomination, go here. Deadline for submission is Oct 31.

Upon what criteria will the companies be judged?

• Freshness of idea
• Potential to disrupt an industry
• The success they can potentially drive for their customers

What are the guidelines and other rules?

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1. A short video telling us more about your company or product must be included with your application. This should not be an elaborate production. We are just looking for a no frills video of the entrepreneur or executive talking about the idea, so that we know it is concise and clear enough.
2. All applications must be received no later than October 31, 2011, at 5pm PST.
3. A person from your company must be available to pitch live at CloudBeat 2011
4. Powerpoints must be no longer than 4 slides long and must be received two weeks prior to the event.
5. In addition to PowerPoint, you can do a demo, video, screenshots or other creative ways of presenting your technology.
6. If you are a startup and/or have received less than 10 million in funding, we will provide you with a mandatory “bootcamp” where experts will help you to hone your pitch (don’t worry, this will be amazingly useful).
7. We’ll accept products that haven’t even been launched yet, and in fact we’d encourage this, and prioritize this.

Apply for the Innovation Showdown here, and don’t forget to register for CloudBeat 2011 today and save 25%. We’ll see you at the event!