At a breakfast panel discussion at Fortune magazine's Brainstorm conference last week, VCs talked about the industries and regions where they are focusing most of their attention, according to a story on CNNMoney.com.

And there seemed to be a lot of local participation.

Gary Rieschel, the founder of Qiming Venture Capital Partners, started in part by Bellevue-based Ignition Partners to fund early-stage companies in China, said that medical technology firms and energy start-ups there are two areas that excite him the most.

The story also said the VCs and industry experts agreed that broadband wireless companies, as opposed to PC-focused Internet firms, seemed to hold the most promise for investors.

Mark Anderson, president of Strategic News Service, a tech newsletter out of Friday Harbor, was the one to comment on that. "The phone is now the center of innovation," he said.