Technologic Partners, the publisher of VentureWire, announced the winners of its Investors' Choice award at the conclusion of its two-day Wireless Ventures private equity conference held this week in Redwood City, Calif. The event covered mobile computing and data communications, focusing on startups and strategies that are resulting in returns on investment, or seem likely to soon. The Investors' Choice award goes to the ten privately held companies presenting at the conference judged most likely to succeed.

The winners, in alphabetical order, are:

Airgo Networks of Palo Alto, Calif.
Aligo of San Francisco, Calif.
Aruba Wireless Networks of San Jose, Calif.
Cometa Networks of San Francisco, Calif.
Ethertronics of San Diego, Calif.
MeshNetworks of Maitland, Fla.
NetMotion Wireless of Seattle, Wash.
Vernier Networks of Mountain View, Calif.
Vivato of San Francisco, Calif.
Vocera Communications of Cupertino, Calif.

Winners were selected from the 69 privately held companies that presented their business plans at the conference. The awards were based on voting by the audience of more than 400 entrepreneurs, investors, and industry executives, as well as a panel of experts, including Todd Morgenthaler, Features Editor, California Technology Stock Letter; J. Gerry Purdy, Partner, Diamondhead Ventures; Thomas Rosch, General Partner, InterWest Partners; and Charles Wolf, Principal, Needham & Co.

Despite a depressed market, investors are still betting on wireless technology. The conference featured companies focused on helping cellular operators squeeze more dollars from their networks, connecting mobile workers to their mail and company data, providing games on cell phones and PDAs, as well as the commercial future of such developments as wireless voice over IP and machine-to-machine communications.

The keynote speakers at this year's conference were Jim Balsillie, Chairman and co-CEO of Research in Motion; Jeffrey Blumenfeld, Partner of Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich; and David Nagel, President and CEO of PalmSource.

Technologic Partners is a publishing and events firm that has been covering venture capital and high-tech startups since 1984. Technologic publishes the VentureWire newsletters, including VentureWire Professional, VentureWire Alert, VentureWire Life Sciences, and VentueWire Wireless. Technologic also publishes ComputerLetter, VentureWire Monthly, and Semiconductor Innovation Letter, as well as producing a series of premier investor conferences. More information is available at www.venturewire.com.

For more information on Wireless Ventures, please visit wireless-ventures.com.