Techcrunch20 - Web 2.0 conference
Techcrunch’s Michael Arrington and Jason Calacanis have just announced a venture for new startups to 
showcase themselves. It’s called Techcrunch20. The format of TechCrunch20 is simple: Twenty of the hottest new startups will announce and demo their products over a two day period. And they don’t pay a cent to do this. They will be selected to participate based on merit alone. The dedicated TechCrunch20 blog is published at techcrunch20.com/blog. GigaOm was the first to write about this, followed by Jessica Guynn at the San Francisco Chronicle.
The conference is happening September 17-18 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. 20 startup companies will be selected to participate and demo; similar to the Demo conference run by Chris Shipley which typically includes ~60-70 companies. However unlike Demo, which currently charges ~$18K to participate, TC20 will not charge startups to present. Costs of the conference will likely be subsidized by attendees & sponsors (Sequoia Capital is listed as an initial sponsor). Registration is now live: $2K before July 15, $2.5K thereafter.
The panel which would review the web 2.0 applications consists of:
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Marc Andreessen (Co-founder, Ning)
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Chris Anderson (Editor-In-Chief, Wired Magazine)
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Roelof Botha (Partner, Sequoia Capital)
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Mark Cuban (Founder, HDNet)
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Om Malik (Founder, GigaOm)
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Robert Scoble (Scobleizer)
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Dave Winer (Scripting News)
My guess is this will provide some healthy competition for Demo, however Chris Shipley and folks put on a pretty high-end show that will also be a challenge to duplicate right out of the gate. That said, i would never underestimate Mike or Jason. (also see Mike’s earlier post about TechCrunch20 from January).
While there are similar models out there, Techcrunch20 promises to be a premier event with a very high profile audience and will be accessible for startups looking to make a break but might not necessarily have the financial clout to attract attention. If your company wants the opportunity to present to a panel of experts and a perfect audience at Techcrunch20 then go and fill out and return the application form.
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