It's never been truer that technology is the lifeblood of high-growth enterprises, and that any manager who is not well educated on the newest models and innovative approaches is at a critical disadvantage.

That's why we at Social Media Today are excited to announce a major initiative on our sister site, MyVenturePad. On Sept 28, 2010, MyVenturePad.com will convene the first online global summit to explore the most pressing issues surrounding cloud computing, software as a service, and on-demand computing for the enterprise. The inaugural event will bring together the world's thought leaders and decision makers to discuss the impact of these new computing technologies on business. The complimentary virtual summit will be held online at http://myventurepad.com/virtual-summit-2010.

We think this event will provide ground-breaking focus on cloud computing. While you're probably getting bombarded with "cloud" messaging right this very minute, we are looking to create in four and a half hours the best thinking on the subject accessible right from your computer. Attendees will benefit from a half day of presentations, panel discussions, and one-on-one conversations with more than a dozen of the smartest experts on cloud computing, as well as top managers from leading companies who are working in the trenches with on-demand technologies.

The event's featured keynote speaker is Netflix founder, Reed Hastings. Since its launch in the late 1990s, Netflix has been recognized as a revolutionary company. It has been ranked multiple times as number one in customer satisfaction across all e-commerce-based businesses by independent researcher ForeSee Results. In 2005, Netflix was the winner of Fast Company's national Customers First Award, and in that same year, Time added Hastings to its "Time 100" list of the 100 most influential global citizens. Hastings will speak about "On-Demand: Built to Last" in a keynote conversation with John Byrne, CEO of C-Change Media and former executive editor-in-chief of BusinessWeek.com and Fast Company.

Other featured speakers include:

• Union Square Managing Partner Albert Wenger
• Brent Leary, co-founder and partner of CRM Essentials LLC
• Bill McNee, president, Saugatuck Technology
• Brian Alvey of CrowdFusion, and co-creator of Weblogs Inc., home to such category-leading blogs as Engadget, Autoblog, Joystiq, TUAW, TV Squad, and others
• Deborah Farrington, founder and general partner of StarVest Partners
• Doug Merritt, executive VP of the SAP OnDemand Solutions organization
• Jeffrey M. Kaplan, founder and managing director of THINKstrategies
• Jeff Stiles, senior VP, SME, Volume and Ecosystem Marketing, SAP AG
• Jim O'Neill, chief information officer of HubSpot
• Jon Shore, vice president, finance and operations, of Living Proof
• Kamesh Pemmaraju, head of cloud research at the SandHill Group
• Lisa Larson, director of customer care at drugstore.com
• Robert Barthelmes, executive VP and general manager, open source solutions, at Misys
• Uri Sarid, VP, engineering, at eMeter
• Blogger, analyst and journalist Phil Wainewright, a thought leader in cloud computing, VP of EuroCloud and CEO of Procullux Ventures

Because our speakers are members of MyVenturePad, you can connect with them online directly both before and after the event to ask questions. We hope you'll join us on September 28th and contribute to the conversation.