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By Will Sturgeon, 26 February 2004 17:15

NEWS Anybody who thought start-ups were a thing of the past may be surprised to hear that an event taking place in London will bring together some of the brightest young and upcoming companies and some of the IT industry's most established heads.

The Innovation Summit, 1-2 March, will give companies at the first- and second-round funding stage the opportunity to rub shoulders with potential partners and investors and to hear words of experience handed down from the likes of keynote speaker Ben Verwaayen, CEO of BT, as well as execs from 3, Computacenter, Computer Associates, Cisco, IBM, Nortel, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Salesforce.com, Sun and Symbian.

While a number of the presenting companies are still at first- or second-round funding stage they are a far cry from the image of the stereotypical start-up that burned cash and imploded during the boom and bust cycle, according to James Bennet, founder of event organiser European Technology Forum.

"A lot of lessons have been learned and the market is significantly different now," said Bennet. "The sort of companies getting second- or third-round funding are typically much bigger companies and don't really conform to the image many people may have of start-ups."

Having been burned in the past, investors are now doing business with companies built as much on strong business sense as a good idea - a sensible approach often eschewed in the heady, reckless days of dot-com excess.

Similarly the investors are rarely doing business with the 'ideas man' - who realises the sense in handing over control to somebody with a proven track record in business - a professionalism lacking in the vain days of the boom years.

Companies will also be given the opportunity to put themselves and their technology in the 'shop window'.

Bennet added: "For 95 per cent of companies their exit route is likely to be a trade sale." That is a statistic which will not be lost on those firms presenting at the Innovation Summit.

If you would like to attend the event as a potential customer, partner or investor then email European Technology Forum.