February 1st, 2007
Arrington and Calacanis seek to reboot the demos conference -- but what about the oldies but goodies?
The announcement of the TechCrunch20 takes some jabs at the DEMO conference that may hit be a tad below the money belt — and any company that can't come up with $15K for a major rollout may not be ready for a major rollout.
But in this era of openness and social media, more conferences that thoughtfully introduce great new products and services is a good thing. The podcasters and bloggers in attendance can give the true prize of highlighting to the world the worthy pitchers and innovators. It's the buzz that's trusted that counts.
Still, does this un-promo-demo meritocracy benefit thing need to be confined to just new companies, start-ups and VC-funded projects? Don't consumers and businesses want super solutions regardless of their origins and the corporate status of the innovators? Most CIOs I know want solutions at low risk, anything else is minutiae.
So perhaps Mike and Jason ought to either include "old" companies too, or create two conferences. The non-start-ups (from HP to SpikeSource) deserve their own TechCrunch20 — Silverback Edition. Two conferences, twice a year, two types of company. All innovation.
You be the judge.
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Dana Gardner is principal analyst of Interarbor Solutions. For disclosures on Dana's industry affiliations, click here or to view his full profile click here.
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