Company officials at Fidelis Security Systems call the rows of empty desks growing room. At least 20 vacant workstations flank the walk to the Bethesda firm's conference room, along with several unoccupied offices.But the Internet security company, which is slated to present at what many call the region's top venture capital event, hopes to fill them soon if they can attract more investor dollars.Fidelis and 37 other private companies chosen from a pool of 120 applicants will get their chance from May 30 to May 31 at the annual Capital Connection fair hosted by the Mid-Atlantic Venture Association.In its 19th year, the event is expected to draw close to 800 attendees, including about 300 venture capitalists.The fair is an annual chance to see some of the hottest and newest mid-Atlantic technology firms. Notables like Ciena Corp., America Online Inc. and Advertising.com Inc. all have presented at the fair in the past.Capital Connection is the venture event each year in this region. And so if you want to increase your exposure to the private equity community in the Pennsylvania-to-Virginia area, Capital Connection is the only place to go, said Michael D. Rosenbaum, chief executive and founder of Catalyst IT Services. His Baltimore firm, which performs U.S.-based information technology consulting at off- shore prices, is another Maryland firm presenting at the event.This year, 12 Maryland firms will make their pitch for venture capital funding at the event. A team of venture capitalists chooses what companies make the cut for the fair. Founders are then given coaches and prepped on how to best pitch their story.Venture capitalists use the event to spot new firms and to catch up on the progress of startups they've been eyeing for potential investments. Last year, 43 percent of presenting companies received funding, and two were acquired.As [venture capitalists], our primary constraint is not money, it is time. How do we sort through the hundreds of opportunities we might see throughout the year? said Jonathan Perl, a general partner at Boulder Ventures in Baltimore. Perl served on the team that selected which firms would present.Here is a forum where we get to show up and, in one day, see 37 companies, he said.Perl said that new this year were firms that targeted consumers, not businesses, as their customers. The change has been helped by growth in online advertising, which has started to draw more and more traditional advertisers.Silver Spring-based Freewebs Corp. is one such firm. The business offers free software and server space for anyone to build and maintain a Web site, blog, chat room or other Web presence. Founder Haroon Mokhtarzada says its tools to build free Internet sites are better than its competitors. He says he believes everyone in the future will need a Web presence.We wanted to create a solution that was simple enough that my mother could use it, Mokhtarzada said.The small company has just 16 employees but 10 million users worldwide. Company creators have started meeting with venture capitalists. They haven't received funding yet, but the firm is already turning a profit.Back at Fidelis, company founders hope to win their second round of financing to build up their engineering and marketing teams.The firm is one of a couple new startups across the country that approach Internet security from a new angle - preventing information from leaving a company's network and misuse of the network instead of just looking to stop malicious code or hackers from entering the network.They call it extrusion prevention - an approach that has generated increasing attention as corporations across the country have struggled to keep customers' social security numbers, credit card accounts and other information safe from theft.Founder and CEO Timothy Sullivan estimates that company employees commit 70 percent of company computer security violations from inside the network, either accidentally or intentionally.Beyond disgruntled employees, some of the big culprits are workers using instant messaging or peer- to-peer file sharing networks like Kazaa. Such programs send and receive data through ports in network firewalls that aren't protected by standard computer security systems.Their use can clog company traffic, allow employees to get around porn filters and can make a network vulnerable to the loss of sensitive data.One client found people using [instant messaging] unauthorized. We installed our sensor on their network and found that 8 percent of their traffic was [instant messaging], Sullivan said.Until people use our product: A. they had no visibility, and B. they had no control, he added.If they win additional funding, it will be the second time the four-year-old firm has attracted cash from outside investors.Sullivan said he and co-founder Gene Savchuk went into the Internet security industry on the recommendation of investment bankers after their last employer went public in 2000. But the two took some time to start the company until they found a unique niche.We waited to raise our venture capital until we saw where we were going to put our stake in the ground, Sullivan said.

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