Dozens of technology company executives — and countless bloggers reporting on their every move — descended upon Arrillaga Alumni Center this week for the AlwaysOn & STVP Summit, hoping to capture some of the campus energy that launched Google, Yahoo and other tech mega-hits.

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Jaemin Lee

Spotlight is AlwaysOn: Top technology executives came to Stanford for the AlwaysOn & STVP Summit this week, converging with entreprenuers and the press for a series of seminars and events. Here, officials from IBM, SRI International and other companies open up for discussion.

More than 700 members of the tech community attended the summit, which ends today with a presentation featuring artists MC Hammer, Chamillionaire and Mistah FAB. The summit will be accessed over the Internet by an estimated 20,000 people from 100 different countries.

Highlights of the two-and-a-half-day convention include the revealing of the AlwaysOn Global 250 and the selection of a best overall venture. Micro-blogging site Twitter won top honors this year.

“They select 250 companies globally as innovators — what companies are doing game changing things in the market,” explained attendee Gleb Budman.

But the summit’s main draw is networking. Dozens of entrepreneurs use the event to solicit investment from the private equity investors that attend and drum up excitement for their companies via the business press.

It is this opportunity that drew in entrepreneurs from every corner of the globe. A group of Australians determined to make a splash at Stanford were advertised as the “Australian Gold Medal Olympic Team,” and all eagerly pitched their products to investors, bloggers and whoever was watching Internet simulcasts.

“If you’re an international business, and you want to do business in the U.S., this is where you do it,” said Mark McCormack, managing director of Loop9, a company which focuses on technology-assisted travel. “Lots of big names, big egos, clever people.”

On either side of the Australians were hundreds of others in suits or dresses, with bright blue AlwaysOn lanyards around their necks and BlackBerrys in their hands. Each had his or her own insights and connections into technology and ideas about ways it could be better used to enrich lives, from suburban households to developing nations. And each was more than willing to share their best two-minute pitch.

Martin Hosking of Redbubble.com, the third-biggest art Web site in the world, was representing his company at the summit. With elite artists bringing in the lion’s share of money and many others struggling to find their foothold, he pitched his company to all who would listen as a way for more artists to earn recognition as well as a paycheck.

Sprinkled throughout the crowd were professionals hoping to sell their services to the wide assortment of fast growing tech companies. Glenn Manishin of law firm Duane Morris LLP flew in from Washington, D.C. for the summit. At first, Manishin talked about the need to keep up to speed on the latest technology trends. Then he cracked a smile as he glanced at the dozens of potential clients walking around.

“There’s a large contingent of C-level executives, CEOs, CIOs,” Manishin said. “They’re always fun to schmooze with!"