I’m currently sitting in the audience for Tech23, Australia’s premier showcase for early-stage technology companies.  In an opening address from the deputy premier the  Hon. Andrew Stoner, who gave plugs to the Australian Technology Showcase and MEGA, announced that the NSW Government would be supporting the Fishburners early-stage company workspace.

The first presentation was from Pem Dechen from ESR Momentum, an information management service for schools to help them track and manage the learning needs of students. Pem’s presentation included a passionate plea to the judges, invoking the words of Jerry Maguire ,’to help you, help us, help the children.”

Pem was followed by Sheng Yeo from OrionVM, which has built one of the fastest cloud computing platforms in the world, with a storage architecture designed to meed the future needs of cloud computing users. Sheng showed an impressive list of advisers as well as a strong growth pipeline.

The third presentation for the morning was from Catherine Prosser from StageBitz, who did a great job of articulating the issues faced by creative companies in both inventorying and even making money from the thousands of props that are created each year. A beta version has already been tested around the world, including Opera Australia, Bell Shakespeare Company and NIDA.