Tech innovation goes global

Few CIOs can rely on local suppliers for all their technology needs. Instead, the hunt for tech has become global, with businesses scouring the world for the latest technology developments to give them that vital edge on the competition.

But where to find the latest wonder that can set your business ahead of the opposition? The silicon.com Tech Hotspots list showcases the locations around the globe that are delivering the IT advances of today and tomorrow.

We've assembled a crack team of judges from around the globe - from London to San Francisco and from Bangalore to Sydney, including CIOs, entrepreneurs, academics, lawyers and even journalists. This group has helped us come up with a list of the 20 cities of worldwide importance in terms of innovation, development, use or manufacture of enterprise technology.

Tech Hotspots: The list

1. Silicon Valley
2. Bangalore
3. London
4. Tokyo
5. Boston
6. Cambridge
7. Shanghai
8. Tel Aviv
9. Seoul
10.Beijing
11.Chennai
12.Pune
13.Singapore
14.Helsinki
15.Moscow
16.Hong Kong
17.Hyderabad
18.New York
19.Sydney
20.Shenzhen

To make it onto the Tech Hotspots list a city has to be judged to be a leader according to a number of criteria. According to our judges, each of the locations that made it into the final 20 is renowned for its creativity and entrepreneurship, the quality of its technological development and delivery, and its use of technology locally.

You can find out more about the silicon.com Tech Hotspots judges here.

Cities that make the list might be there because of the number of start-ups and tech research labs they host. Or perhaps a city has developed renown for its expertise in particular areas of high tech, such as wireless or security.

A location might also be chosen because it offers a vast number of software engineers - or because its population has access to free wi-fi and cutting-edge government services.

In the rest of this special report you can find more analysis of the different trends thrown up by our judge's conclusions this year.

It is perhaps no surprise that Silicon Valley has topped this first silicon.com Tech Hotspots list - after all it is still where many of the world's top technology companies call home. It is still the first place entrepreneurs think of when looking to finance their technology ideas.

But that doesn't mean California is the only place where tech innovation is occurring - the silicon.com Tech Hotspot list boasts four cities in India - compared with only three locations in the US.

China has four on the list as well, while even the UK manages two places in the top 20.

Silicon Valley no longer has the monopoly on entrepreneurship - students at university in Bangalore or Beijing are just as likely to be nurturing a start-up as their contemporaries in the US.

Browse the profiles of each hotspot by using our interactive map of the list of the 20 hottest tech cities - they include details of why each location made it onto the list and also some handy hints for the business traveller.

If you don't agree with our ratings you can vote locations up and down yourself, using the buttons on each profile. And feel free to add your comments or business tips on each profile page.