SMEs, coaches and investors are invited to attend the ICT Finance MarketPlace Venture Academy coaching and Investment Forum brokerage events in Lisbon, Portugal on 25-26th March 2012.There is no charge for these events which will be held together with the annual Tech Media Europe 2012.Our investor jury will select 50 early & growth stage tech startups to attend and pitch to an audience of international venture capital and corporate investors and of high-level players from the tech startup scene.These SMEs will also qualify for the European Venture Contest 2012.Top European VC funds as well as corporate investors such as Earlybird, Kreos Capital, Intel Capital and others have already signed up for these events. Extensive institutional support from the Portuguese Government Secretary of State for Entrepreneurship, Competitiveness and Innovation and from the European Commission guarantees the presence of high-profile networking opportunities.We are also offering the opportunity to attend a Venture Academy run by ICT Finance MarketPlace on 25th March in the same location. This is a coaching event where experienced coaches from relevant industry areas will provide participants with one-on-one practical help to develop their pitching skills towards potential investors and prepare them to present at Tech Media Europe.Investors will have access to the business profiles of the presenting SMEs, of other investors and of additional key players prior to the event in order better to target their networking effort.In addition, One2One meetings will be pre-arranged between investors and entrepreneurs and visibility will be given to all active participants by publishing their picture and biography on our event website and in the conference binder.If you would like to attend, please contact information to John Molony (molony[at]teseo.be). SMEs active in technology sectors can register directly here before midnight on 26 February 2012.Presenting companies will have the opportunity to:• Perform an 8 minute pitch followed by 7 minutes of Q&A from our Investor Jury; • Conduct meetings with investors in the afternoon, as assisted by the organizers; • Be visible on the TME website for attending investors with a short presentation and with a 2-page company Profile in the event binder; • Participate free of charge (the event is funded by the Portuguese Government and the EU).In order to be admitted to present, all companies must go through an application and selection process. Selection will be based an online profile and presentation provided by the company which will be reviewed by the Investor Jury. Thus, in order to be selected, each applying company will have to provide on the event website: a fully completed company profile and an 8 minute, business pitch, MS PowerPoint presentation (to be uploaded).