Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) today announced the winners of the sixth annual Emerging Technology Showcase awards. More than 300 senior-level IT attendees and Forrester analysts recognized six companies for their innovative technologies, the culmination of The Emerging Technology Showcase at the Phoenician Resort in Scottsdale, Ariz. This week’s event featured technology demonstrations and discussions on emerging technologies, their market viability, and their effect on business.

“As companies consider their technology investments for 2004, key decision-makers want to learn about the emerging technology that can be applied to their business directly,” said Merv Adrian, vice president at Forrester. “ETS presents an intimate opportunity for attendees to determine which of the presented technologies are viable for their business needs in the short term and which will provide growing business value over time.”

ETS, formerly produced by Giga Information Group, highlighted six key technology areas (TechnoVistas) with demonstrations of new or soon-to-be-released technologies and solutions from more than 30 entrepreneurial and established companies. The presentations were followed by evaluations from a panel of Forrester analysts, CIOs, and industry experts, along with an instant audience vote that rated the innovation, business potential, and quality of each demonstration. This year the following companies were recognized as the overall winners in their TechnoVista:

  • Unshackling The Internet: Putting Wireless To Work In The Real World. Navigation Technologies with its VIAMOTO suite of distributed client/server location software from Motorola that transforms cell phones and other in-vehicle wireless devices into navigation systems, local information guides, and mobile personal assistants.
  • Identifying And Dealing With Threats And Nuisances To The Enterprise. Proofpoint with the Proofpoint Protection Server, a comprehensive software solution that protects enterprises from spam and viruses and ensures compliance with corporate email policy.
  • Extending And Protecting Network Perimeters And Applications. Fiberlink with its Dynamic Network Architecture, offering managed remote access services to enterprises that need to provide mobile workers with secure connectivity to critical business resources.
  • Please Talk To Me: Enabling The Power Of Collaboration. anacubis with its anacubis Desktop, a research and analysis tool with a unique visual interface for commercial researchers, analysts, and knowledge managers.
  • Emerging Enterprise Technology: Defining The Future. Intel with its PCI Express, a new I/O standard set to emerge across desktop, mobile, server, and communications platforms starting next year.
  • Breaking The Status Quo: Perceptions Of An Alternate Universe. Identitech with its FYI Visual, which communicates information through an intuitive graphic display in real time.

“Many of the companies presenting at ETS are producing a new generation of products and services that leverage the investments made in the first wave of the Internet,” said Anthony Perkins, founder, AlwaysOn Network. “With IT spending back on the rise and a growing economy, this is a great time to be an entrepreneur or investor in technology.”

In keynote speeches, Anthony Perkins; Marc Andreessen, chairman and co-founder of Opsware Inc.; Mark Bernstein, president and center director at the Palo Alto Research Center; and Daniel W. Rasmus, Microsoft director of information worker vision at Microsoft, presented their views on the hottest new technologies and recommended how to define business initiatives and adapt to the ever-changing IT landscape.