Irish high-growth start-ups are being given the opportunity to pitch their company to international investors and media at the Demo Traction conference in Boston later this year.

The one-day event will be held in September as a partnership between Demo, which has helped launch firms such as Salesforce, Tivo and Webex, and COSIMO Venture Partners, which helps international firms to crack the US market.

Up to 30 companies from the UK, Ireland and the US will go before the judges, investors and media to convince them with a four-minute pitch they are the next billion-dollar company.

A minimum of five of those companies will be from the UK or Ireland, and five of the 30 will be named Demo Traction Champions.

"Today's Demo Traction companies are tomorrow's unicorns," says Ciaran Hynes, managing partner at COSIMO Venture Partners. "This is the stage where tech start-ups poised for explosive growth will get their big break."

Being recognised by the completion could open doors for the companies, with venture funding and press coverage up for grabs.

Focusing on emerging technologies and innovations, the Demo conferences are produced by IDG and held in the US, China, Brazil, Russia and Vietnam.

“Demo has a 22-year history of being the launchpad for emerging technology start-ups,” said Demo executive producer Erick Schonfeld.

“Over 50 Demo alumni launch companies have been acquired by tech giants like Adobe, Cisco, Google, and Microsoft. Unique to the Traction conference is the requirement that all applicants are able to demonstrate traction, in terms of rapid year-over-year growth of revenue, customers, users, employees, and so forth.”

The conference will also showcase technologies and products spanning big data, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and robotics, among others, and will also feature speakers from start-ups that have reached $1 billion in valuation.

Applications are now open, and will close on July 29th.

See www.demo.com/ehome/DEMO/launch for details.