The highly successful Tech Trailblazers Awards introduced an additional category to reflect growing industry interest and engagement in the Internet of Things (IoT).

In addition to existing enterprise technology categories such as Cloud, Infosecurity and Big Data, the Tech Trailblazers Awards will now feature IoT as a dedicated category.

Jeremy Geelan (@jg21), veteran keynote speaker, industry commentator, Web executive, and Founder & Chair of the IoT Expo conference series, said, “Disruptors and incumbents of the infrastructure sector are equally energized by the increasing momentum of the Internet of Things. As the era of hyper-connectivity really begins to gather pace, the addition of an IoT category to the Tech Trailblazers Awards is perfectly timed.”

Geelan will be one of the three judges of the new category, along with at least two other global IoT experts to be confirmed later this month.

The Tech Trailblazers Awards is an innovative international awards platform for startups which gives more than just recognition to the best ideas and innovation. Winners are awarded with prizes worth thousands of dollars from an estimated US $1 million prize fund to fuel the growth of their business. These include expert mentoring, exposure to investors, business development tools and more. The Tech Trailblazers Awards prize fund, again projected to be worth in excess of $1m, is supported by sponsors and industry partners including the Cloud Security Alliance, Computing, Gigaom, Innovation Warehouse, Mynewsdesk, RealWire, VMware, and many others.

Enterprise IT startups can enter the following categories: big data, cloud, emerging markets, IoT, mobile technology, networking, IT security, storage, sustainable IT and virtualization. All entrants will also be automatically entered free of charge for Regional Trailblazers Cups, a further chance to win an award, and be awarded Regional Trailblazer for their geographical region.

Rose Ross, founder and Chief Trailblazer of the awards, said, “IoT is an exciting sector and the brilliant startups in that sector deserve the recognition that the Tech Trailblazers Awards offers. We anticipate a great response to opening up this category and I am sure Jeremy and his fellow IoT judges will have a busy time once entries close on August 29th.”

The Tech Trailblazers Awards will be determined by a combination of public voting and an extensive expert panel of judges from around the world. Industry analysts, editors, entrepreneurs, startup specialists and CTO’s from all backgrounds in enterprise technology make up this year’s panel and are eager to review a new wave of startup talent and crown this year’s Tech Trailblazers.

This year entrants can register and save entries so they can return to them to make changes before the final deadline. This means entrants can take advantage of the early bird savings without having completed the entry as long as they make the payment at that time and before the early bird deadline. The early bird savings of $50 per category entered is valid until July 31st.