GreenBeat 2009 to spotlight smart grid innovators

VentureBeat introduces another opportunity for you to plug in with the innovators at its seminal conference on the smart grid, GreenBeat 2009, being held 18 – 19 November in San Francisco.

Online registration is available now, and Greenbang readers can save 20% off regular price tickets with the discount code GREENBANG09 here.

Leading energy innovators believe that revamping the power grid will make the world safer, more efficient and more consumer-friendly — in a word, smarter. But we have some big questions to answer first: Who will lead the innovation, implementation and management of a new smart grid? Where do technology and money intersect? What roles will traditional stakeholders play? And most importantly, where do we start? What is our collective vision for the first wave of smart grid technologies?

Let’s map it out. VentureBeat is inviting you to be among an elite group of leaders across the smart grid ecosystem — large companies, leading utilities, technology startups, venture investors, capital markets and press — who together will investigate and debate what our next moves should be toward a cleaner, more efficient electrical grid. We’ll explore the benefits of a smart grid that champions transparency and puts consumers back in charge of how much power they use and how much they pay for it.

Keynotes are scheduled to be given by former Vice President and Nobel Prize Winner Al Gore; John Doerr, a leading Silicon Valley investor with Kleiner Perkins; and Laura Ipsen, senior vice president of Cisco’s Smart Grid Business Unit.

As VentureBeat continues to build the GreenBeat 2009 programme, it will also be looking for the biggest, boldest ideas entrepreneurs have to change the way we think about, build and use the existing grid. To spotlight these ideas, VentureBeat is holding an Innovation Competition to find the best disruptors in the business.

Time is running out, so register now for GreenBeat 2009. Sponsorship opportunities are also available. For more information, contact sponsors@venturebeat.com.

VentureBeat Editor-in-Chief Matt Marshall and the VentureBeat team will look forward to seeing you in November.