Cleantech or Green Tech is all the rage. Investment in this sector has soared in the last couple of years and there have been some spectacular solar IPOs. But Cleantech is not a single technology. Making solar panels is closer to making semiconductors; windmills involve mechanical engineering, and some water purification technologies are biological. This panel will sort out the sub sectors of clean tech and focus on the most promising sectors for investment.

Growing your company: from 10 million dollars company to critical mass.

A lot of small companies hit a wall early. They grow quickly to a certain size but have trouble scaling up. The issues include management style, financing, positioning of the product, and the ability to attract talent. The experts on this panel will discuss the frequent mistakes entrepreneurs make and the solutions that can help them get their companies to the size they need to be significant players.

Exits: How do you get out?

Getting out can be as important as getting started. Once a company has overcome the initial hurdles and can see a profit in its future, investors and entrepreneurs have to think about ways to pay back investors and for the entrepreneurs to benefit from their efforts. With the IPO market still a limited option, there are many other ways to exit, from a merger, trade sale or acquisition by a larger company. Experts on this panel will discuss the options and the pros and cons of each strategy.

Is Europe missing an opportunity in Asia?

The business-class seats between California and Asia have been full for years. U.S. VCs have poured money into Asian startups and even set up subsidiaries and joint ventures in Asia. Now Israelis are flocking to India and China to do business. Despite long historical ties between Europe and Asia, European investors in Asia are simply not as visible in outsourcing or as VC investors in startups. Is Europe losing a great opportunity or is the effort just a very low profile? This panel will present some provocative views on Europe's Asian investment effort.

Is Social Networking A Fad?

Last year's poster child for social networking was Facebook. The year before it was MySpace and the year before that it was Friendster. Investors have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into social networking startups. These sites have undoubtedly changed the way millions of people interact, but where's the business model and what will have lasting value?

How Will Microsoft-Yahoo Change Search and Advertising?

There have been a number of European efforts to counter the domination of Google. Some governments have funded research projects like France's Quero project. In Russia, Google is way behind Yandex. In China, Baidu is king. How does the proposed Microsoft-Yahoo merger change the landscape? Are there possible alliances to counter Google in Europe? Is search (and Web advertising) still a hot investment area?

What Europe Can Learn from Israel

In a country with a population just two percent of Europe, Israeli venture investors raised $1.7 billion in 2007, nearly a third of what all European startups were able to collect. Israel has been a model for how a small country becomes a big player in tech. It has exploited close ties between its military and civilian research and created a prototype of the global startup, placing a company's marketing arm in the U.S. while its R&D is still at home. What lessons can European entrepreneurs and investors learn from Israel? This panel will provide some of the answers.

Going Public in Europe - Can you do better listing at home?

Only a small portion of European startups will ever reach the IPO stage and even fewer will succeed in an international exchange. Away from the spotlight, most local stock markets have managed to continue to grow since the beginning of the millennium. They host interesting and exciting tech firms with large domestic presence in the Web 2.0 space but also in life sciences, clean tech and communications. Their CEOs and shareholders have cashed in, and even without the glamour of an overseas bourse, have enriched themselves quite substantially after many years of hard work.

Is it time to rediscover the financial market near you? Or does it hamper global expansion? The pursuit of happiness does not match the life cycle of most public companies. But in local markets, even with a smaller float, analysts can remain close to the company and give it more attention that a German, Korean or Israeli start might get on NASDAQ. The danger of going to the bigger exchange is that a company many not command enough analyst buzz to trigger daily trades. Clearly, the value and the liquidity gained by listing on a local exchange deserves a second look.

This roundtable will examine three significant issues: How do European bourses fare for the tech sector? Should tech startups CEOs and shareholders consider going public first on their own continent as a fund-raising opportunity and then apply for a larger trading platform such a NASDAQ? What are the successes and failures of listing locally in the UK, Germany or France?