TechCrunch20 Announcement Raises Eyebrows

TechCrunch maven Michael Arrington and former Netscape head Jason Calacanis will team up to run the TechCrunch20 Conference, where tech startups will be highlighted based on merit instead of fees. Their choice of venue to announce the new show just happened to be the first day of DEMO, a conference that highlights startups and charges a hefty fee for them to attend. Valleywag It's wrong on so many levels (blog post about TechCrunch20 questioned whether it can stand above the "conflict of interest" he perceives at the conference level: Michael, just like you say that there's a conflict of interest because these are PAID demos, TechCrunch20 will experience the same. The startups that are likely to be picked will probably be those of the well-connected entrepreneurs who know you or Jason personally (oh, wait, you call it a "committee"). So don't make it sound like you are catering to the little guy in the garage... A major benefit that DEMO provides is it opens doors to companies outside the inbred world of Silicon Valley. My company presented at DEMO and it was worth every dime. We are located in the heartland, and we don't have any familiar' names on our Board....If you are going to succeed, you will have to prove to the rest of us that TechCrunch 20 will in fact be open, honest and fair. You can start by having your readership elect your board which should be diverse and not all related to TechCrunch in some way. This would help make sure that you aren't the next conference criticized for a conflict of interest. Shipley weighed in on the announcement as well, and took a higher road than other people may have taken in response: While it is true that DEMO charges companies a fee to participate, DEMO does not take any company just because it can pay a fee. We don't need to. More than 300 companies look to be a part of DEMO - we accept no more than 70. In fact, Guidewire Group meets with more than 1,000 companies a year - at no cost to those companies. It's true that not all great companies can afford to be at DEMO, so Guidewire Group works with them to help them meet potential investors. NetworkWorld, the producer of DEMO, works with companies on payment terms. And the media? Their "passing coverage" generated 250,000,000 media impressions, and that number doesn't include unaudited blog coverage. As a guest of a number of DEMO events over the past years, you must be finding some value here - you keep coming back. I hope you're new event continues that tradition of delivering a valuable venue that supports entrepreneurs. Give him credit for that stance, as it's much more professional than the conditions that spurred his answer. And as one more commentor at TechCrunch observed, "when did this love-fest begin between Del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit | Furl Bookmark murdok: David Utter is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business.