UBM TechWeb's Enterprise Connect Announces Winners of Annual Innovation Showcase

SAN FRANCISCO, March 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Enterprise Connect, produced by UBM TechWeb, today announced the winners of its annual Innovation Showcase competition. The four winners of the competition will present their ideas and approaches during opening sessions at Enterprise Connect Orlando at 9:00 am on both Tuesday and Wednesday, March 27 and 28. Enterprise Connect is happening March 26-29, 2012 at the Gaylord Palms Hotel in Orlando, FL.  For more information visit: http://www.enterpriseconnect.com/orlando/.

Innovation Showcase seeks innovative start-up companies that are revolutionizing enterprise communications and collaboration. The criteria for eligibility included having at least one enterprise reference customer for the nominated product or service; applicants must focus on enterprise communication and/or collaboration and have revenues of less than $5 million. Submissions for the Innovation Showcase were judged based on the new idea, product, or service presented for improving enterprise communications and/or collaboration.

Selected from over 15 submissions, this year's winners include:

• Hookflash (Tuesday, March 27 at 9:00 a.m. from the keynote stage)
• Nuvixa (Wednesday, March 28 at 9:00 a.m. from the keynote stage)
• Vidtel  (Wednesday, March 28 at 9:00 a.m. from the keynote stage)
• Wrike (Tuesday, March 27 at 9:00 a.m. from the keynote stage)

"The Innovation Showcase is really growing and it was difficult to pick only four companies from the number of applications received, which included new approaches and solutions for messaging, video, form factors, and configuration tools. Communications is growing and broadening in so many ways - not a single application was around just voice," said Dave Michels, CEO of Verge1, who managed the Innovation Showcase selection process. "We look forward to learning more from each of these companies around their particular solution on the keynote stage at Enterprise Connect."

"Enterprise Connect is excited to present these outstanding young companies to our audience of enterprise communications decision-makers," said Fred Knight, Enterprise Connect GM and Co-Chair. "They exemplify the rapid changes and disruptive potential that we see emerging in the industry over the next few years, and we think our audience will agree that they open up new possibilities for how enterprise end users communicate and do their work."

In addition to the Innovation Showcase winners' presentations from the Enterprise Connect keynote stage, the four companies will be showcased during the Enterprise Connect Exhibition in the Innovation Theater on the show floor.

The Enterprise Connect Innovation Showcase was coordinated by Dave Michels, who blogs frequently on NoJitter.com, Enterprise Connect's editorial Web site. Michels, who has his own blog at http://www.talkingpointz.com/ also served as one of the judges, and was joined on the Innovation Showcase judging panel by: David Danto, Principal-Consultant – Collaboration/Multimedia/Video, Dimension Data and Director of Emerging Technologies, IMCCA; Ron Anderson-Lehman, past CIO, Continental Airlines; and Israel Del Rio, Senior VP Information Technology, CIO, Revel Entertainment Group.

About Enterprise Connect

Enterprise Connect (formerly VoiceCon) is the leading conference and exhibition for enterprise IP Telephony, Converged Networks and Unified Communications in North America. Enterprise Connect® brings corporate IT decision makers together with the industry's vendors, analysts and consultants to focus on the issues central to enterprise networks and communications. Enterprise Connect® owns and produces No Jitter, (http://www.nojitter.com/), providing daily blogging and analysis of enterprise communications, and it also serves the community with a weekly email newsletter, a Webinar Series and Virtual Events. For more information, visit http://enterpriseconnect.com/.

About UBM TechWeb

UBM TechWeb the global leader in technology media and professional information, enables people and organizations to harness the transformative power of technology. Through its three core businesses – media solutions, marketing services and paid content – UBM TechWeb produces the most respected and consumed brands and media applications in the technology market. More than 14.5 million business and technology professionals (CIOs and IT managers, Web & Digital professionals, Software Developers, Government decision makers, and Telecom providers) actively engage in UBM TechWeb's communities and information resources monthly. UBM TechWeb brands include: global face-to-face events such as Interop, Web 2.0, Black Hat and Enterprise Connect; award-winning online resources such as InformationWeek, Light Reading, and Network Computing; and market-leading magazines InformationWeek, Wall Street & Technology, and Advanced Trading. UBM TechWeb is a part of UBM plc, one of the world's largest media businesses as a global provider of news distribution and specialist information services with a market capitalization of more than $2.5 billion.

SOURCE UBM TechWeb