Cleveland Nano-Week idea contest names judges

A whole week of nano-related companies, people, facilities and ideas is coming to Cleveland this October. Today the conference announced the names of those who will be judging the nano-business idea contest (which apparently drew considerable national attention to the region last year). As always, the prestige of the judges makes a strong statement to the press and the public about how important an event is. Check 'em out:

-- VC panelists: Jonathan P. Murray of Early Stage Partners; James L. Bildner of New Horizons Partners (Boston); and Ted Schroeder of the KAL Equity Capital Fund (Los Altos, Calif.).

-- Tech corporations: Alan Olson, director of technology for Ferro Corp., and Scott Rickert, chief executive of Nanofilm

-- Researchers: Don Blewett of the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship at Purdue University (West Lafayette, Ind.) and Zachary Shulman of The Johnson School at Cornell University (Ithaca, N.Y.)

The Nanotechnology competitions (Northeast Ohio and National) sare the culminating event of NANO Week, October 17-21. All they want are ideas--you don't have to write a whole business plan.

And the NEO winner gets $75,000--even if they live somewhere else, as long as they're willing to relocate to the region. Now there's a nice incentive for a bright entrepreneur.