In the exhibition hall at the Microsoft worldwide partner conference (WPC) 2007, one of the notable stands was anchored by Enterprise Ireland, which had brought over nine Irish companies and subsidised their presence at the event.

Enterprise Ireland's vice-president in the US, Benjamin Mosse, says the organisation had attended WPC 2006 in Boston and had found four Irish companies either exhibiting or walking the halls.

"On the back of that I thought, 'Here's a conference where it's tech-partner heavy, with a lot of emphasis on doing business together'. It was something we could get behind because there are a lot of non-competitive companies all in one space, which is great for us and we really can support them," says Mosse.

With that in mind, Enterprise Ireland and Microsoft decided to put together an Irish pavilion at the Denver event.

Enterprise Ireland hosted nine companies on the stand - Avaeon, CashCollector, DataKraft, MXSweep, NitroSell, PixAlert, pTools, Relate Software and VigiTrust - and each one had their own exhibition space.

Invest Northern Ireland was also present. "We co-hosted a dinner over here with Invest NI, and we're very keen on all-island collaboration. Invest NI didn't want in on a stand this year, but we're looking at something for next year, and it has three to four companies it would like to bring over," says Mosse.

"With that in mind, in 2008 we hope to have a bigger presence, with more companies exhibiting at our pavilion."

Mosse says the main benefits for the Irish companies came in meeting channel partners, developing relationships with Microsoft and building partnerships with other Irish firms. "The Irish companies realise when they're here they can actually go back to Ireland and partner with other companies," he says. "It's a very untapped area and it's great to get people here talking about ways they can work together. It's all very positive for Ireland."