Last week I attended TechCrunch50 in San Francisco, CA. It was a two day conference that gave the top 50 emerging internet companies a chance to pitch their concepts to a panel of experts in order to get feedback and a chance to win $50,000. Overall, it was interesting, but honestly, I didn't really see anything that really made me say "wow". Now, that doesn't mean those companies won't necessarily be highly successful, I just didn't connect to anything they were pitching. It was an interesting couple days, and considering my $195 student ticket price (versus the $2,995 regular price), it was a good investment.
However, one thing that I wasn't ready for was the similarities of this event and that of all Hollywood events I've been too. I was expecting business leaders and tech geeks who were there (like me) to learn about the up and coming businesses and technologies. Instead it was just a bunch of guys (yes, 99.9% guys) all vying for attention from some celebrity status VCs or tech bloggers. It was difficult to have a conversation with anyone without their eyes quickly darting back and forth to see who else might be within a handshakes shot distance.
It was funny how little respect my badge that instead of saying my company said "UC Davis". The badges were basically great ways to segregate people. Different colors indicated if you were Press, VIP, Exhibitor, Attendee etc. So the first thing people did was to scan your badge and see what organization you were with. I was the lowest of the low with my school name on my badge. So low in fact that on multiple occasions when someone would come up to speak to us they would scan my badge, see UC Davis, and not even bother to address me. It was very funny and became a running joke to see who would acknowledge me and who wouldn't.
The crowning moment of "Hollywoodism" was at the very end of the conference where Michael Arrington (the guy who runs Tech Crunch and is the face of the blog and the event) snubbed the conference winners by walking off stage and boycotting the award ceremony. Apparently he didn't like the winner selected and went off and had a little cry backstage. I would call that pretty darn Hollywood entitlement.
Anyway, I can't say if I will go back next year. It was an interesting experience but not something I really need to do again.
However, one thing that I wasn't ready for was the similarities of this event and that of all Hollywood events I've been too. I was expecting business leaders and tech geeks who were there (like me) to learn about the up and coming businesses and technologies. Instead it was just a bunch of guys (yes, 99.9% guys) all vying for attention from some celebrity status VCs or tech bloggers. It was difficult to have a conversation with anyone without their eyes quickly darting back and forth to see who else might be within a handshakes shot distance.
It was funny how little respect my badge that instead of saying my company said "UC Davis". The badges were basically great ways to segregate people. Different colors indicated if you were Press, VIP, Exhibitor, Attendee etc. So the first thing people did was to scan your badge and see what organization you were with. I was the lowest of the low with my school name on my badge. So low in fact that on multiple occasions when someone would come up to speak to us they would scan my badge, see UC Davis, and not even bother to address me. It was very funny and became a running joke to see who would acknowledge me and who wouldn't.
The crowning moment of "Hollywoodism" was at the very end of the conference where Michael Arrington (the guy who runs Tech Crunch and is the face of the blog and the event) snubbed the conference winners by walking off stage and boycotting the award ceremony. Apparently he didn't like the winner selected and went off and had a little cry backstage. I would call that pretty darn Hollywood entitlement.
Anyway, I can't say if I will go back next year. It was an interesting experience but not something I really need to do again.
I guess if you pay the full-price ticket and make up a company name, you'd get more respect! haha. I'd rather save the $$ too. You should have changed your name to Steve Jobs... they would have done a double-take on your nametag.