One of the region's most prominent venture capital groups is hosting a fall conference this week, and Techrockies.com will be on-hand to provide its readers with in-depth coverage.

Set in the mountain resort town of Sun Valley, Idaho, the Venture Capital in the Rockies Fall 2008 Conference starts Tuesday and ends Thursday. The event is hosted by the Rocky Mountain Venture Capital Association, which comprises venture capital firms and service professionals from an eight-state region.

RMVCA board member and event chairman Mark Solon said the association has selected 14 presenting companies from nearly 100 technology-oriented startups based in the Rockies region. The presenting companies range from seed stage to expansion capital.

"We were looking for the most promising, high-growth companies in the region," Solon said, noting that the process was stage agnostic for a reason.

"The broad attendance of VC's at the forum have historically covered all stages of financing," he added.

Six of the presenting companies hail from Colorado, while four are headquartered in Utah. Montana and New Mexico each sent one firm, and the host state is providing two of the presenters.

"The presenting companies represent a diverse group of revolutionary technologies, enough to pique the interest of even the most discerning investors," said Solon, who is also managing partner of a Boise, Idaho-based venture capital firm, Highway 12 Ventures. "For example, Hyperion Power is pretty fascinating. [Hyperion specializes in] portable and safe nuclear energy. Who wouldn't be interested in that? Also, Mocapay seems to have figured out compelling solutions for point-of-sale mobile payments. And Celio's REDFLY product lets you use your smartphone like a laptop.

"Those are just a few of the presenting companies that will be turning heads at the conference."

Cultural anthropologist Wade Davis will provide the keynote presentation. Also scheduled to speak are executives from PERSI, Idaho's public employee retirement fund; Internet search giants Yahoo! and Google; information technology powerhouse Hewlett-Packard; and online retailer Amazon.com.

This marks the first year that the Rocky Mountain Venture Capital Association has staged a fall conference. The association has hosted an annual winter conference in Beaver Creek, Colo., for 25 years.

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