Who’s got game? That’s what we’ll be asking during a special competition happening at VentureBeat’s inaugural games conference for the industry’s top players, on March 24, 2009, at the Mission Bay Conference Center on UCSF’s campus in San Francisco, CA.

Opportunity for Innovators One of the goals of GamesBeat is to give entrepreneurs a platform to share some of the newest innovations most likely to move the gaming industry forward. We’re challenging companies with the latest technologies to participate in a contest to be seen on our GamesBeat stage, in front of 400 of the gaming industry’s major influencers, including C-level/VP-level gaming company executives, investors and partners, technology founders, big brand marketers and media.

Playing the Game Go to our Web site to submit your company to be considered to present on stage during the conference’s ending general session. VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi and a team of expert judges — including Jamil Moledina, outreach director of EA Partners, James Cham of Bessemer Venture Partners, and Eric Goldberg of Crossover Technologies –  will select seven startups from the submissions to present at GamesBeat 2009. Each selected company will then have five minutes to pitch their product and/or service idea, and make the case for why their innovation will have a major impact on the gaming industry. Audience members will then vote live for their favorite company. The winner will receive both an award and a spotlight on this site.

The “Who’s Got Game” competition will also be streamed live on VentureBeat.

Submissions must be received by March 2nd; we will notify you if you have been chosen to participate by March 9th.

If you have any questions, please contact Dan Kaplan at: info@venturebeat.com .

If you’d like to learn more about GamesBeat 2009, please visit our Web site for more information, or to register.

Let the games begin.

The day-long event, which takes place on March 24 from 8:30am-8:00pm at the Mission Bay Conference Center (1675 Owen St.) in San Francisco, aims to fufill the need for business-oriented discussion about the future of gaming.

The conference theme and tagline, “All The World’s A Game,” highlights the notion that even in these dark economic times — and perhaps in part because of them — gaming is on its way to becoming the go-to form of digital entertainment around the world. In the process, games are beginning to reshape the landscape in the media, advertising and software design worlds.

At GamesBeat 2009, you can expect to network with 400 high-level executives from games, platform technology and entertainment companies, founders from the most innovative startups, digital marketing experts from big brands and agencies, top investors and an exclusive list of industry jounalists.

Our partial and growing list of speakers includes:

• Graham Hopper, EVP/GM, Disney Interactive Studios
• Bing Gordon, Partner, Kleiner Perkins and Fmr. Chief Creative Officer, EA
• Brett Close, CEO, 38 Studios
• Lars Butler, CEO, Trion World Network
• Phil McKinney, Hewlett Packard VP and CTO, Personal Systems Group
• N’Gai Croal, Senior Technology Writer, Newsweek
• Mitch Lasky, partner at Benchmark Capital
• Bernie Stolar, entrepreneur and former head of Sony and Sega’s U.S. game businesses
• Geoff Keighley, executive in charge of game publisher relations, Spike TV
• Sean Fanning, head of Electronic Arts’ EA Rupture
• Alex St. John, chairman of Wild Tangent

Tickets are $595 and can be purchased online at Eventbrite.

We also encourage your input and feedback on our evolving agenda.