'Fast Pitch Forum' to debut May 27 with some familiar names

The Washington Technology Industry Association is reformatting its long-running Early Stage Investment Forum, rebranding it this year as the "Fast Pitch Forum & Technology Showcase." 

The event  -- to be held May 27 -- will feature 24 companies vying for the votes of audience members. (Full list below). This is not to be confused with the Northwest Entrepreneur Network's "First Look Forum," which also got an overhaul earlier this year.

That smaller, more intimate, event was designed to showcase new startups that had not presented at a business plan pitch competition before.

In the case of the Fast Pitch Forum, many of the companies are well known around Seattle. Some are scheduled to launch new offerings at the event, which has morphed from an investment matchmaking event to a technology showcase. This is the 16th year for the event.

Presenting companies include:

AdReady

Blist

Bonanzle

BuddyTV 

Daptiv

DataSphere

Gist

Konnects

Liquid Planner

Ontela

Pet Holdings

Picnik

Redfin

Reality Gap

The Robot Co-op

SEOmoz

Swype

TalentSpring

Teachstreet

Vantos

Visible Technologies

Whitepages

Widevine Technologies

WidgetBucks

The keynote speaker will be Tim Draper of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, while Marc Brown, Microsoft head of Corporate Development/M&A will lead a morning panel discussion.

READ MORE and COMMENT, more