AlwaysOn has officially kicked off its 1st GoingGreen East Top 50 competition. They’re are looking for the top emerging private companies that are creating new business opportunities in green technology. This includes private companies that are demonstrating significant market traction and pursuing game-changing technology in the following sectors:

• Solar Energy
• Biofuel & Agriculture
• Clean Energy (not solar or biofuel)
• Energy Storage Systems
• Energy Management, Smart Grid & Energy Efficiency
• Water Technology & Water Management
• Green Materials, Green Buildings & Green Nano/Micro-Tech
• Green Automobiles & Transportation
• Clean Manufacturing & Clean Products
• Resource Recovery & Waste Management

The winners of this competition will be officially announced in late February and will be honored at GoingGreen East, March 9th-11th at The Four Seasons Hotel, Boston, MA. They will also be featured in AO’s quarterly print “blogozine” and on the AlwaysOn website.

To nominate a company, please click here to fill out a qualification form.

To reserve your ticket to GoingGreen and take advantage of the 50% AO-Insider discount, click here!

Current Top 50 Nominees:

Solar Energy
1366 Technologies
Aquus Energy
Blue Sqaure Energy
Crossbow Technology, Inc
Evergreen Solar
GroSolar
Konarka Tech
Lightwave Power, LLC
Odyne
Petra Solar
RSI Silicon Products
Sencera
Solar & Thermal Systems, Inc.
Standard Solar
Stellaris
SunEdison Corporate
Suniva
Wakonda Technologies
Xunlight Corporation

Biofuel & Agriculture
Coskata
Ecore Intl.
Energex Pellet Fuel Inc.
Firefly Energy
Lehigh Technologies

Clean Energy (not solar or biofuel)
Advanced Electron Beams
Deerpath Energy
Energy Ingenuity
Everpower Renewables
New Energy Capital
Northern Power
Novomer, Inc
Own Energy
Protonex Technology Corp.
Regen Power Systems
Second Wind
Techno Spin
TPI
Wilson Turbo Power
Zymetis

Energy Storage Systems
Aspen Products Group
Lilliputian  Systems
Primet Precision Materials
Solicore, Inc.

Energy Management, Smart Grid & Energy Efficiency
Advanced Power
Aircuity
Ameresco
BlueWave Strategies
BPL Global
Brighter Planet. Inc.
Carbon Solutions America
Clear Standards
Conservation Services Group
Danotek Motion Technologies
Eka Systems
Ember
Energy Window
eps corp
greenBytes Inc
GridPoint
H2Gen Innovations
MetroLight
Peregrine Energy Group
Positive Energy
Powerit Holdings
Premium Power Corporation
RealWinWin, Inc.
Renaissance Lighting
SmartSpark Energy Systems
Trilliant Inc.

Water Technology & Water Management
epuramat
Seldon Technologies

Green Materials, Green Buildings & Green Nano/Micro-Tech
Apricus Inc.
CellTech Power, Inc
EcoKote
GEO2
Hycrete
iCrete
LumenZ
Luminus Devices, Inc
Microposite
PPT Research
QD Vision
Segetis, Inc.
SOMS Technologies

Green Automobiles & Transportation
et3.com Inc.
NxtGen Emission Controls
Skymeter Corp
Zipcar

Clean Manufacturing & Clean Products
GoGrid
Precise Alloys
Permolex International LP
Sun and Earth

Resource Recovery & Waste Management
Coalogix
Electro-Petroleum
Powermaster
Seahorse Power Corp
Qteros
RecycleBank

words by Larry Chiang, pictures by Brian Solis

Chamillionaire, MC Hammer, MistahFAB

Quincy Jones III

Mark McCormack wrote about street smart sports stars in his book, “What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School”.  I attended a session at AlwaysOn that uncovered musicians making the transition from musician to full-on entrepreneur.  Here are nine things I learned at AlwaysOn from MC Hammer, Quincy Jones III, Chamillionaire, MistahFAB.

-1- Dumb it Down, Sandbag for Success.  “My manager said, keep acting dumb and people will keep giving you gangster”, Chamilionaire.  Translated, under promise and they won’t see you coming when you’re passing them.

-2- Citing and sourcing Mentors. From the panel at AlwaysOn Summit at Stanford, MC Hammer said to Ron Conway, “There’s a great great advisor to my business, DanceJam”.

MC Hammer also mentioned Mike Arrington of TechCrunch, SoftTech and Rustic Canyon.

-3- Treasure Management 101.  Managing your money where you never enter a deal because you are short money.  On leaving Universal without a new contract Chamillionaire said, “I got in a position where I was ok with leaving Universal without a new deal.  And I wanted it bad too”.

“Money Delayed is NOT missed money,” added MC Hammer

-4- Be Happy Working It.   Chamillionaire, drove 200 miles to sell 200 CDs… on consignment.  They don’t pay you to rap. They pay you to promote.

-5- Hype of Bubble #1: “you gotta say its larger than it is… it’s marketing 101″.  MC Hammer

About Bubble #2 “You gotta talk/study conversion rates, analytics and behavioral targeting,” MC Hammer when alluding to radio stations padding air play.

-6- You own the YOU brand. You own your own domain. 360 degree deals keep your music from your myspace and EVERYTHING else (ringtones, voicetones, etc). Your brand is pure when you’re close to your fans.

Chamillionaire: ‘My mom has a mySpace so I stay connected to everyone and stay real’: MistahFAB advised, “You get a dude who loves the computer and you… just let him be genius”.

-7- MC Hammer advises, “Twitter UP.  You can bypass radio and just talk to your Twitter followers.  Mr Hammer works the Twitter Party http://tinyurl.com/6ak7r2

-8- Content is King (or a lil Prince). “Lil Wayne puts it all out there,” said MistahFAB.  He knows that when your fans (aka your users) scream for stuff… you listen.

-9- Good ideas vs Dope ideas. “MLK was in bed asleep when he had a dream,” MistahFAB.  I’m interpreting this to mean that when you’re great, you come up with “dope” ideas even when you’re asleep.

Quincy Jones III

Chamillionaire

MistahFAB

Visit Brian Solis’ album on Flickr for more pictures from the event.