Earlier today Sunnyvale’s Plug and Play Tech Center announced its final lineup of keynote speakers, presentations, and attending venture capitalists and angel investors for tomorrow’s Plug and Play Tech Center Fall Expo and New Ventures BC Top 10 Finalist Mobify is on the slate.

Plug and Play EXPO is the premier Silicon Valley showcase for introducing “best of the breed” emerging Consumer Internet, Digital Media, Software, Mobile, Gaming and Cleantech companies that are introducing their product and service offerings within the current year.

The event brings together Silicon Valley executives, entrepreneurs, key venture capitalists and angel investors and the media. The one day Expo is a unique blend of presentation sessions, one-on-one demonstrations, and networking in a highly interactive, intimate, relaxed atmosphere.

The final lineup for the conference’s competitive pitching session includes over 40 emerging startups in varying stages of which Mobify is one. Over 80 venture capitalists and angel investors from over 50 firms have been confirmed their attendance at Plug and Play Expo.

Good luck to Mobify!

Electric fleet vehicle solution provider and NVBC Top 10 Finalist Rapid Electric Vehicles (REV) today announced that the City of Inglewood in California has chosen REV to transform their existing fleet vehicles to 100% electric with their fast-install AC drive technology, integrated data management and networked charging station infrastructure.

“REV is giving North American fleet vehicle operators an opportunity to transform their passenger vehicle fleets into green driving machines. REV Technologies is an innovative and forward thinking company, which provides a steadfast fully electric vehicle that moves society with a sustainable and renewable energy vehicle for now and the future,” states Rick Longobart, Fleet Management and Transit Services Superintendent, City of Inglewood, and President of the Municipal Equipment Maintenance Association.

Additionally, REV will participate at the 2009 AltCar Expo in Santa Monica later this week and fleet managers will have an opportunity to test drive REV’s zero-emission, all-electric SUV. Attendees can see the REV EV fleet vehicle during AltCar Expo 2009 on Friday and Saturday, October 2 and 3, 2009 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. pacific at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in booth numbers 129 and 130 on the expo floor.

Follow Rapid Electric Vehicles (REV) on Twitter this week to see how they make out at the AltCar Expo.

Top 10 Finalist Vineyard Networks was profiled on Network World yesterday in an article titled Start-up offers net management Fisher-Price style.

Based outside of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Vineyard Network was founded in May 2008 by Jason Richards, who now serves as president, and others. The founders wanted to create what many before them have also attempted: easy, inexpensive network monitoring and management technology for IT managers that couldn’t devote money, time and energy to complex software that promised to help them better run their networks. Named after an aspect of the local landscape, Vineyard Networks proposes with its NetCore on Demand technology to make network management “Fisher-Price style.”

“Our product includes a small unmanaged probe, a SaaS service and a network exploring interface on the customer site. We kept it very Fisher-Price style. If customers want to know more details about something, they simply click on it and the data is there,” Richards explains.

The Network World talks about why Richards and his team chose a cloud-based service that was priced with a subscription model – to take advantage of the current interest in cloud computing and the ease with which customers can implement Software as a Service (SaaS) on a monthly basis.

Congrats to Vineyard Networks on the great online coverage.

Tickets are now on sale for Connect ’09, the BC Innovation Council’s (BCIC) premier event for technology start-ups and innovators.

Connect ‘09 offers a unique structured networking opportunity providing direct access to top-tier technology leaders for their expertise and feedback. The event features four expert panels and entrepreneurial case studies presenting techniques and strategies that directly impact a start-up’s success. Detailed panel descriptions, as well as the complete line-up of panelists and moderators are available online.

Connect ‘09 also showcases emerging innovations from academic institutions in BC, the annual BCIC Awards and a feature address by Leonard Brody, an internationally recognized technology entrepreneur, venture capitalist and best-selling author. Tickets are $50 and include stand-up dinner buffet.

New Media BC announced this morning that the winner of “Best in Show” at their upcoming Fusion ‘09 Conference will receive a ticket to San Francisco as well as a three month placement at the prestigious Plug and Play Tech Centre accelerator in Sunnyvale, CA.

The Plug and Play Tech Centre currently houses over 200 start ups and has collectively raised some US $750 million to date. Companies selected for this program are each assigned a relationship manager who will help them access the available resources, obtain introductions to contacts and to help them line up pitches to potential investors.

During the 3 month placement, rent is deferred and there are no charges for access to a multitude of resources including networking events, access to strategic and corporate partners (eg. Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Cisco, Intel, Best Buy, Qualcomm, etc.), access to service partners, mentorship and coaching (through Plug and Play management, Executives-in-Residence and other advisors) and regular pitching opportunities with angel investors and VCs.

The Fusion ‘09 Venture Forum for Digital Media is on November 12th at Robson Square in Vancouver. If you’re interested in a shot at this accelerator prize, apply online now.

Hot on the heels of picking up a combined $103,ooo in prizes last night – the $63,000 BCIC Second-prize package and the $40,000 BC Hydro Sustainability prize – Etalim is presenting in the Energy Technology Stream of next week’s Banff Venture Forum at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel.

The Banff Venture Forum is the premier company financing event in Canada showcasing early and growth stage companies in three streams: Information Technology, Energy Technology and Life Sciences Technology. Approximately 35 companies will be presenting before investors from across North America with the intention of securing the investment required to grow their businesses.

The Forum is designed to showcase the hottest hi-tech companies, offer insight into key issues within the industry, provide a premium networking opportunity and give companies a chance to learn from world-class professionals in the investment community.

Good luck to Etalim next week.

The 9th Annual New Ventures BC Awards Ceremony took place tonight and $300,000 in prizes were handed out. Here are the winners:

• 1st Place: LightIntegra Technolology – $120,000 BC Innovation Council prize package

• 2nd Place: Etalim – $63,000 BC Innovation Council prize package

• 3rd Place: Lungpacer Medical – $37,000 BC Innovation Council prize package

• BC Hydro Sustainability Award: Etalim – $40,000 prize

• BC Innovation Council Economic Impact Award: G.R. Green Building Products – $20,000 prize

• BC BioEnergy Network Award: Bluekey Energy – $20,000 prize

Congrats to all 10 Finalists that made it this far and to the five winners who took home the prizes tonight.

Less than 48 hours until we find out who are the winners of the 2009 New Ventures BC Competition and where $300,ooo in prizes will find a home. Just as a reminder, here are the Top 10 finalists in no particular order are:

• Bluekey Energy – Prince George
• Etalim – Burnaby
• G.R. Green Building Products – Burnaby
• Indel Therapeutics – Vancouver
• LightIntegra Technolology – Vancouver
• Lungpacer Medical – Anmore
• Mobify – Vancouver
• Rapid Electric Vehicles – Vancouver
• Veridae Systems – Vancouver
• Vineyard Networks – Kelowna

The winners will be announced on September 24th at a gala reception at the SFU Segal School of Business. The event is invite-only, so no doorcrashers – if you’d like to attend be sure to email us with your request now.

New Ventures BC 2009 Finalist (and 2008 Finalist) GR Green Building Materials Inc. is ready to produce North America’s first ‘green’ roofing and siding materials made from naturally abundant limestone and recycled plastic bottles and bags. The Burnaby based company manufactures look-alike cedar and slate roofing tiles don’t crack when nailed, are fire-proof, impact-resistant and cost a fraction of the real thing.

By ensuring nothing is wasted and considering the impact of a product’s life cycle on the environment and people’s lives, GR Green goes beyond sustainability, to environmental responsibility in manufacturing. GR Green’s cedar and slate products are non-toxic, carbon positive and 100% recyclable, after 50 years of use.

Owners Geoff Wensel and Robert Suggitt are engineers and know plastics, construction, and manufacturing. In 2005, using a regular oven and a rolling pin, they invented a process that produces ‘green’ roofing and siding materials like nothing else on the market. Three and a half years later, they’re ready to launch full-scale production in the fall of 2009.

Mobile Web browsing is growing at an incredibly fast rate, with tens of billions page views shown on mobile every month. It’s necessary to optimize websites for small screens and New Venture BC 2009 Finalist MOBIFY is doing just that.

Using MOBIFY’s powerful point-and-click interface, web designers can create a perfect mobile view for any website. These mobile views integrate seamlessly with existing websites, giving users an optimized mobile experience whether they’re following links from Google, Twitter or other services.

MOBIFY’s consistent mobile design environment allows web designers to choose live content from an existing website and tweak existing CSS to look perfect on a small screen instead of creating simple mobile pages from scratch. MOBIFY then automatically apply the mobile design to the entire site and makes it available at m.yoursite.com.