Taking a moment to celebrate and recognize the innovation taking place within the Enterprise 2.0 marketplace is important, but rather simple. Doing it in three minutes is indubitably more challenging .

Launch Pad is a fun, free contest that awards vendors in the collaboration space with an opportunity to present live at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference. The competition is not limited to startups – all companies are encouraged to participate. The only requirement is that you showcase something new.

What do you mean by new?

We want to hear about a new product, a new partnership, a new feature — anything your company is proud to boast about in 2011. The announcement doesn’t need to take place live at the event (although we like that too); if it’s happened within the calendar year, it counts.

Sounds easy enough. How do I enter?

Craft 140 perfect characters and Twitter pitch to #e2conflp before April 11, 2011. That’s it.

Suspiciously simple – what gives?

Granted, there are a couple more hoops to jump through. The Jury will select the 8 best submissions, and those 8 companies will create 3 minute videos. After the community votes on the vids, the 4 with the most votes go on to demo live at Enterprise 2.0 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA on June 22, 2011.

Anything else I should know?

Full rules and key dates are all explained on the site. We’re switching things up slightly this year and adding a new twist to the contest: Launch Pad is officially on a diet and shaving down main stage demo time to three minutes a piece.

Jeez.

Yeah, sorry about that. Please remember to include the hashtag: #e2conflp (so we know you want to enter), and if you have any questions, just holler at me. Look forward to seeing your submissions!