Tech Trailblazers Awards Recognize Green IT Startup Champions around the World

Inaugural Tech Trailblazers Awards for enterprise tech startups will give prizes and VC mentoring to Sustainable IT Trailblazers

LONDON, UK – August 23 2012 – Calling all innovative Green IT startups: The Tech Trailblazers Awards welcome entries from enterprise IT startups that help companies or data centres save money while saving the planet. The awards are open to entries until September 12th at 11:59pm PT. Download an entry form today at www.techtrailblazers.com.

 The Tech Trailblazers Awards represent the first independent initiative to recognize and reward green enterprise technology startups in a global arena. In addition to sustainable IT, The Tech Trailblazers technology categories include: big data, cloud, infosecurity, mobile, networking, storage, virtualization and emerging markets. All entrants will win a “goodie bag” of prizes worth over $3,000 from an estimated $1 million prize fund. Winners will also get expert advice in the form of VC mentoring.

The Tech Trailblazers Awards judging panel includes green IT experts such as ex BT Global Head of Operations, Stephen O'Donnell, now a consultant, advisor and author at www.thehotaisle.com; Sam Johnston, Director of Cloud and IT Services at Equinix; and  Harkeereet Singh, Global Head of Energy and Sustainable IT at Thomson Reuters.

O’Donnell commented:  “Startups are key to innovation in sustainable or green IT. Energy and resource efficiencies are found in power management, cooling and Software Defined Networking commonly known as SDN. These are just three of the areas where we are expecting to see strong green IT trailblazers contenders.”

The Tech Trailblazers Awards prize fund, projected to be worth in excess of $1m, is supported by sponsors and industry partners including MIT/Stanford Venture Lab, the Cloud Security Alliance, Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA), Computing, Prezi, Startup America, RealWire, Lissted, Launchpad Europe, Mynewsdesk, Wazoku, and ExecEvent.

The judging panel includes the IT industry’s leading figures from around the world, giving little-known startups the opportunity to have their products and services reviewed by eminent influencers.   

Entry forms should be submitted before the final closing date of September 12th for consideration by the expert panel. For more information and to download an entry form, please visit www.techtrailblazers.com.

To join the Tech Trailblazers as a sponsor, please email innovate@techtrailblazers.com.

To be added to the mailing list to receive the latest updates, please email innovate@techtrailblazers.com.

For more information, please visit www.techtrailblazers.com or follow the Tech Trailblazers Awards on Twitter @techtrailblaze, #ttawards or on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/company/tech-trailblazers-awards.

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Notes to editors

Stephen O’Donnell, chairman of the Tech Trailblazers Awards judging panel, former CIO, author, and consultant and blogger at www.TheHotAisle.com, is available to comment. Please contact Olivia Shannon at Omarketing for more information (contact details below).

At present the judging panel includes:

• Mohit Agrawal, Founder and Editor, Telecom Circle (Twitter: @telecomcircle)
• Cynthia Artin, President, Artin Arts (@cynthiaartin)
• Joe Baguley, Chief Cloud Technologist, VMware (@joebaguley)
• Frank J. Bernhard, Strategy and Operations Director, Deloitte Consulting (@FrankJBernhard)
• Steve Broadhead, Founder and Director, Broadband-Testing Labs (@steve_broadhead)
• Rebel Brown, Author and Startup Veteran (@RebelBrown)
• Mike Burkitt, CTO, Launchpad Europe (@launchpadeurope)
• Teresa Cottam, Founder and Chief Analyst, Telesperience (@teresacottam)
• Chris Evans, Consultant and Blogger, TheStorageArchitect.com (@chrismevans)
• Marty Foltyn, Hands-On Lab Program, SNIA (@MartyFoltyn)
• Ian French, Channel Guru, Mentor and Entrepreneur (@siceo)
• Edward P. Gibson, Director, Forensic Technology Solutions, Pricewaterhousecoopers (@EdwardPGibson)
• Martin Glassborow, Blogger, Storagebod (@storagebod)
• Mark Hillary, CEO, IT Decisions (@markhillary)
• Brian Honan, CEO, BH Consulting (@brianhonan)
• Elise Huang, Partner, WestSummit Capital
• Sam Johnston, Director, Cloud & IT Services, Equinix (@samj)
• Ben Kepes, Principal, Diversity Limited (@benkepes)
• Justin Lodge, Infrastructure Architect, National Australia Bank (@justin_lodge)
• Chris Mellor, Storage Editor, The Register (@chris_mellor)
• Steve O’Donnell, Consultant, Advisor and Author, TheHotAisle.com (@stephenodonnell)
• W. Curtis Preston, CEO, TruthInIT (@wcpreston)
• Simon Robinson, Research Vice President, 451 Research (@simonrob451)
• Kai Roer, Senior Partner, The Roer Group (@kairoer)
• Raj Samani, EMEA Strategy Advisor, Cloud Security Alliance (@raj_samani)
• Andrew Seldon, Editor, Hi-Tech Security Solutions, TechNews (@andrewseldon)
• Sarb Sembhi, Director, Consultancy Services, Incoming Thought (@sarbsembhi)
• Enrico Signoretti, Senior Consultant, Juku Consulting SRL (@esignoretti)
• Harkeeret Singh, Global Head of Energy & Sustainable IT, Thomson Reuters (@harqs)
• Jennifer Steffens, CEO, IOactive (@securesun)
• Stuart Sumner, Editor, Computing (@stuartsumner)
• Jon Toigo, CEO, Toigo Partners International  (@jontoigo)
• Matthew Yeager, Chief Technologist, Colt Technology Services (@mpyeager)
• Monica Zlotogorski, Editor, Inside Latin America, TM Forum (@MonicaCZN)

Media Contacts

For Tech Trailblazers Awards

Olivia Shannon

Omarketing

UK: +44 (0)208 255 5225

US: +1 781 519 0275

olivia@omarketing.co.uk

www.twitter.com/Olivia_at_O

About the Tech Trailblazers Awards

Tech Trailblazers is a new concept in awards, designed explicitly for smaller businesses and startups that are less than five years old and at C-series funding or below. The awards have low barriers to entry and prizes that not only recognize startup innovation, but also proactively help startups grow their businesses with exclusive coaching, mentoring and development from VCs and leading CTOs as well as an estimated prize fund worth in excess of $1m. The awards seek to recognize true innovators in the following enterprise technology and other areas:

• Big Data Trailblazers
• Cloud Trailblazers
• Emerging Markets Trailblazers
• Mobile Technology Trailblazers
• Networking Trailblazers
• Security Trailblazers
• Storage Trailblazers
• Sustainable IT Trailblazers
• Virtualization Trailblazers

Entries close on September 12th – register your interest by emailing us, following us on twitter @Techtrailblaze or follow the conversation via the hashtag – #TTAwards.