TC50 founder Michael Arrington has doubled the amount of advertising. He says whatever DEMO offers, he will double it.

Arrington notes, “Our ads will be on our various TechCrunch networks sites and via our terrific sponsors, who are going to be adding their own inventory as well. We’ll give half to the top two winners, and half to everyone else who launches.”

It seems the silly wars appear to be on yet again this year. 

I think it’s great that both DEMO and Techcrunch50 are offering bigger prizes – anything to help the startups that present past the initial buzz is a good thing. Let’s just hope Jason, Heather, Mike and Matt remember the end goal and don’t get back to last years “TC50: 1 – Demo: 1 – Startup: 0“.

Now it appears DEMO has stepped up the prize pool bigtime by offering two $1 million dollar prizes. The prizes will be awarded to the best enterprise startup and the best consumer startup. The prizes are basically ad buys over the six month period following the conference.

Update 5:30PM: It appears that the total prize is $1 million, not two million as I previously noted. I am not sure if I got it wrong or if they changed it. I thought it read that two winners (one consumer, one enterprise) would each receive $1m.

Conference organizer Matt Marshall notes regarding the prize, “The campaign will include print advertisements, web banner placements, text link promotions, email newsletter promotions, and video ads. The package includes the development of creative content that is to be featured on IDG media properties – another huge value proposition to the winning companies.”

I assume the ads will be priced at the rack rate so the $1m is probably worth less had you bought the ads yourself and negotiated a better rate (probably 30% at best). No matter what, it’s good to see the winners get some publicity past the few posts they will get from the conference buzz.

How many of the companies that presented at either conference last year can you name? Can you name 10 of the 50 that presented at TC50? This huge ad buy should help two companies stay top of mind for at least six months and could give them a lift to build from.

Let’s get the logistics out of the way – DEMO will be held on September 21-23, 2009 and Techcrunch50 will be held on September 14-15, 2009. Depending on the date of registration, attendees pay $2,000-3,000 for DEMO and $1,500-3,000 for Techcrunch50. (as a side note, I’ve seen tc50 producer Jason Calacanis giving away bunches of free tickets on his podcast, so you might try that road to avoid the high costs).

Last year I was one of the few people who attended both pitch events. You can read all of my coverage and an in-person comparison between both events. Overall DEMO was a better run show logistics-wise.

My thoughts are based on web/Internet businesses. If you have a physical product or other IT-related service, DEMO is basically the only choice.

DEMO

DEMO requires companies that present on stage to pay $18,500. Presenting companies are also provided with space in the expo hall over the three days of the conference. They have launched a new “alpha pitch” program this year which offers companies 90-seconds on stage, two conference passes and expo hall space for $5,000. To present at DEMO, the product must make it’s public debut on stage at the conference.

The decision here is whether the $20k will provide a better return than if the $20k was spent elsewhere. If you bought ads, hired a temp dev/design/biz person to build out the product further, attended more conferences with the cash, would you receive more media impressions than dropping the $20k on DEMO? I’ve only heard from a few DEMO presenting companies but overall the feedback on the logistics were good.

Techcrunch50

Techcrunch does not charge a fee for companies who present and (at least last year) the companies were offered one day of space in the expo hall (referred to as demo pit). Other companies can pay to be part of the expo hall. Like DEMO, Techcrunch50 requires that your product not be accessible before the conference.

Since there is no “cost” to present at Techcrunch50, it makes it a bit more difficult to compare directly to DEMO. If your product is still a few months from going live, I’d say go ahead and apply, it can’t hurt to get onto the radar of some of the players that the conference has recruited. If your product is ready today, I am inclined to say launch now.

I put cost in quotes above because a number of stories I’ve heard from presenting companies is that if you do get to present, you will be required/pressured into providing all of your future news to Techcrunch. As for the demo pit/expo hall space, most of the stories I heard as I walked around were very negative. The majority of the negativity was logistics-based but there were also complaints of not enough time with the conference attendees. Of course many of those same companies said much more positive things in the press which I guess is required. I am sure there will be more drama this year so if you can’t deal with drama, then don’t apply.

Some additional final thoughts

Another consideration is where your product is in terms of development. If it’s ready to go now, ask yourself if you want to put it on the shelf for nearly 90 days waiting and wondering if another player will step into the arena before you hit the stage.

There are good opportunities at both conferences to meet with venture capital folks. If you are seeking vc funds, attending one of the conferences might be a good way to meet with multiple vc firms at once. On the flip side, the vc firm attendees will be overwhelmed with pitches so it might make sense to pitch as you normally would.

My top suggestion for anyone considering applying to either/both conferences is to pick 2-3 companies from last year’s events that are closely related to your company. Do the research to see what type of media impressions and reviews they received. And watch the media impressions after the conference-sizzle dies down (about 2 weeks out) – are the companies still seeing good media traction?

You might even try contacting the companies and offering lunch in return for some off-the-record discussion. The most important thing I’ve learned by attending these pitch conferences is that what’s said when the camera is on is typically very different when the camera is off.

If you do apply to present at one of the conferences, please make sure your presentation is memorable.

Whatever you decide, best of luck and success for your startup. Remember that no conference, no blog, no newspaper, no one anything can make your company be a success. You need to keep working to build the audience over time and continue to move the needle up and to the right.

This week I watched about a dozen startup pitches at the DEMO conference via the live stream (which was fabulous btw). Most of the demos were, unfortunately, forgettable. The products might be awesome but nearly none of the presenters got me excited about their product or service. This issue isn’t just about the companies I watched at DEMO – it happens all the time at nearly every pitch event I attend. I will use DEMO as the example for the rest of this discussion but know that you can insert any pitch conference in its place.

What makes a pitch memorable? That’s simple (yes, it really is simple). It’s about showing your passion for your product.

When you are on stage, you want every single person watching your presentation to feel your passion about your product. Only one of the DEMO companies I watched brought some passion to their presentation. That company was Skout. The founder showed their dating jukebox and looked like he was humping it (in a good way). It was hot because you could feel the energy level in the room go up. The other presentations I viewed were all monotonous and almost seemed like it was the same presenter on all of them. No pitch or tone change, no excitement, just a boring, "here’s what it does". If you aren’t excited about your product, why should I be?

Compounding the problem was that nearly every presenter was wearing the same outfit. While I am not suggesting you dress up like you just came in from a fishing trip or color your hair orange, it also doesn’t mean you need to wear a blue shirt. We’ve seen the pale blue shirt crowd many times before. Even another shade of blue is fine — the pale blue screams forgettable.

UCLA basketball coach John Wooden once said, "Make everyday your masterpiece". I would modify the line a little, "Make every pitch your masterpiece". I know it can be very hard, scary and nerve-wracking to be able to stand in front of 10, 100 or 1,000 people and talk. It’s certainly not easy for anyone, no matter how many times a person has done it. One of the things that always helps me is to remember that the people watching me speak are there to support me. In the case of DEMO, all of the people in the audience and watching from home want to cheer you on and want to see you succeed (I know I do). So instead of thinking that you are going out to pitch to a group of people you don’t know, think of the people in the audience as family. Change the way you look at the people you are pitching to and you will see how much stronger your presentations become instantly (even if they aren’t pitches).

I am going to share more tips on how to make your startup pitches memorable each and every time over the coming week. And I’d be happy to critique your pitch at SXSW.

As a sidenote, when I mentioned in the DEMO chat that I thought the presentations were forgettable, organizer Chris Shipley told me that it was easy to critique from the 3rd row. I’d be more than happy to bring my startup to DEMOfall but as I told Chris I can’t afford $20k.

The bottom line is simple – when you are pitching your product or service, bring passion, bring excitement and get the crowd enthused. Make your pitch memorable each and every time!

Erick uses the post to explain that his conference, Techcrunch50, is the much better model and that now he will have to "crush" VentureBeat. He notes that techcrunch50 companies get in on merit (oh is that how they do it!). Erick also displays a chart displaying the very little traffic that demo.com receives but leaves the techcrunch50.com site out of the chart – the comparison chart is available below for reference.

I wrote an in-person review of both Demo and TC50 from last year as I was one of three people to attend both events. It was great to meet so many CN readers at both events. After the unprofessional treatment I received at TC50, I won’t be attending this year. I am not going to go into the behavior here but suffice to say that even the event staffers thought the behavior was unprofessional.

The truth is that the numerous stories I heard from the entrepreneurs of the demo pit startups, the ones that pay $3k/day, were not good. But, as one might guess, no one wants to speak on-the-record because they are afraid.

It’s totally understandable that the Techcrunch team is probably a little upset because Time magazine ranked their top competitor Mashable as a top blog for 2009 while Techcrunch was listed as "overrated". Might these be some additional reasons why Techcrunch might be the desperate one in this conversation?

• They’ve added a "javascript page refresh" – this means that if you leave the site open in a tab, it will refresh every once in a while – extra pageviews for the site
• They continue to increase the page views required to read the comments – first it was 100 on a page and a link to "view all comments" – now that link is gone and less comments are viewable on each page
• They have decided to break embargoes when it suits them to make sure they appear first
• Even with their reportedly strong-arm tactics, startups are starting to provide news to everyone but Techcrunch and as I’ve said since the early days the best route is to provide the news to all of the sites you trust to honor the posting time and get the most coverage and feedback you can.

Patricio Robles from eConsultancy has a good post reviewing the same post. He talks about why positivity sells; I guess he doesn’t read the aformentioned blog often. Let’s hope that Erick thinks about all the negative feedback on his post and offers up an apology to Matt and Chris, even if it’s handled privately.

RealDVD was one of the products that launched at DEMO last month. There was a lot of chatter that the movie studios wouldn’t be happy with the product.

Albrecht notes, "Yesterday, Real scored a small legal victory by having the case moved from a Central District Court of California in Los Angeles (the studios’ home turf) to a Northern District court, where the company hopes to find a more favorable setting."

A special thanks to Francois Bochatay from Sobees, Adolfo Foronda from Nerdstalker, Stephanie Quilao from Noshtopia and Clay Fisher/Daniel Lee from Briteclick for attending the CN brunch. Briteclick is one of the NY-based companies I met this week and will be conducting interviews with all of the NY-based companies over the next month.

Here’s all of the CN coverage from both DEMO and Techcrunch50:

Video Interviews and Demos

• Video Interview With MixMatchMusic CEO Charles Feinn
• HeyCosmo Blaster – Voice SMS (video)
• SuggestionBox – Community Feedback Management (video)
• Wixi – Online Storage Using a Desktop Interface
• Iterasi Launches Bookmark Importer
• FiveSprockets Helps You Make Better Media – Video Demo
• Kidos – Education and Entertainment Platform for Kids
• 2Pad Creates a Gallery From Photos and Videos in Your Email (video)
• Video Interview with Seesmic CEO Loic LeMeur

Live Coverage

• DEMO Welcome Reception Photos
• DEMO Session I – Moving the Chains
• DEMO Session II – Television Meets the Web
• DEMO Session III – Words, Pictures and Music
• DEMO Session IV – Your Mobile, Your Life
• DEMO Session V – Open Studios
• Techcrunch50 – Mobile
• Techcrunch50 – Language and Communication Tools
• Techcrunch50 – Rich Media
• Techcrunch50 – Games
• Techcrunch50 – Social Networking
• Techcrunch50 – Research and Recommendations
• Techcrunch50 – People’s Choice – iamnews

General

• Kara Swisher on Demo vs. Techcrunch50
• An In-Person DEMO and Techcrunch50 Comparison
• Loic LeMeur Discusses Techcrunch50
• TC50: The Funded Startups

Schwag Bag Videos

• DEMO Schwag Bag Video
• Techcrunch50 Schwag Bag Video

Next week is a busy one in NYC – should be exciting!

Iterasi

The new feature is called Import Bookmarks and is an easy way to take your Internet Explorer Favorites, Firefox Bookmarks or links saved in Delicious and save them as Iterasi pages. Here’s CEO Pete Grillo to explain how it works:

Venue

DEMO is held at a traditional conference center, TC50 is held at an art house. I preferred the DEMO location as it was much larger and felt more spacious. People are basically sitting on top of each other at TC50. Last year there were many complaints of having to stand at TC50 and I’ve seen several people standing this year as well. TC50 has a number of round tables outside of the presentation room which is great for having casual conversations, something I didn’t see at DEMO.

Chairs

When you sit in a chair for over 10 hours, that chair better be comfortable. I found the DEMO chairs to be more comfortable and frankly the TC50 chairs hurt my ass (I’m not alone with this comment).

Entertainment

After speaking with many attendees, TC50 gets the nod here. Most feel like the experts bring some entertainment value to the event and break up the individual presentations. DEMO seemed like the presentations were never going to end.

Internet Access

Both conferences have excellent wired Internet access.

Stage Setup

TC50 has a one computer setup so each presenter has to swap out while the previous presenter speaks with the experts. The "mood" on the TC50 stage feels a bit warmer than the DEMO stage. DEMO had a two-level stadium style setup where each presenter had their own setup which was quite impressive. They also used a handheld camera which provided some interesting angles on the presenters and their products (especially the mobile products).

Schedule

Both schedules are way too packed. There needs to be more time for breaks and networking. The startup presentations at DEMO were in nearly four hour clips – I would have split them in half and provided a bio break in the middle. It’s also critical to follow the schedule when the day goes so long – DEMO was within one minute of the schedule while TC50 was quite a bit behind.

Food

Food seemed to be about the same at both, with DEMO winning by a small margin. I’d suggest to both conferences considering adding snacks, especially in the afternoon. Other attendees agreed. Actually, both conferences really need to kick up their overall food offering big time. For $3k a ticket, there better be food all day, this is non-negotiable.

Demopit/Pavillion

DEMO created an outdoor (covered), non-airconditioned pavillion where each of the 72 startups had a stand with a large uniform sign. The demopit has small tables with small personalized signs. The DEMO setup looked better although I like the setup at TC50 as you are forced to walk past the demopit companies to get to the presentation center. The DEMO pavillion had more energy – perhaps it was the very high ceiling of the tent.

Apparently there were no chairs provided to the demopit companies – this was an issue last year as well. Although this year the startups just took chairs from the sitting area.

Badges

DEMO has a huge badge but very small type for the name and company. This is one of my big frustrations with conferences in general. Make the name and company large enough so anyone can read it as they walk by. Also, DEMO had a small colored strip to note the type of attendee (press, exhibitor, sponsor, etc.) – this strip could have been larger as well. TC50 has color coded badges and the type is larger. Overall I like the TC50 badge.

HeyCosmo

Blaster is voice sms for groups. It’s a pretty useful application. Let’s say you plan to have a party with 10 of your friends to celebrate the Giants winning the Superbowl. You want to know which bar your friends would like to meet at. You can setup a "blast" to your friends with your options. Blaster then calls each one of your friends, reads your text and offers suggestions. Your friends select their choice and that’s it. The Web application (also a Facebook app) monitors the replies in real-time so you can tell who has replied.

My example is very basic – Blaster can be used for surveys as well. It’s much easier to quickly poll your friends via voice about meeting than to setup an invitation with a service like Evite. I grabbed James for a quick demo of Blaster at DEMO today:

In the press room, there were a ton of usb keys – I grabbed one of each – you can see them in the video. FFWD wins for the coolest looking one – a surfboard.

I was able to capture Kara’s comments on video:

Sim Ops Studios

– Immersive, casual games community online
– you can play, customize or create your own game from scratch
– scripting environment for developers
– there is an objects gallery to add more to the games
– you can invite friends to come in and help you edit the games collaboratively
– kind of a 3d world with a casual game maker

MeWorks

– making your web site unique
– designers are listed and then you can select a designer that you are interested in
– this isn’t new – it’s been done 100 times or more
– in fact, 99designs seems stronger
– has some basic project management system
– they offer a variety of modules – looks like you need to host it with them as well
– there’s a sitemap builder
– has a basic wysiwyg editor
– they say this reduces the cost of creating a site

crowdSpring

– "the creative marketplace"
– can post projects, watch the world contribute ideas and then select the one you like
– a community where you can tap into the global talent
– this also looks just like 99designs
– 6,000 creative people are participating (allen: getting supply is easy, the demand is the hard part)
– today they launched crowdSpring Pro – for agencies and businesses
– they bring up some agency creative director – HA is all I can say – was willing to give a client’s project to offshore work – I wonder if he gave the client a reduced rate for the cheap labor?

Sky Data Systems

– SkyData introduces business mobile application combining all apps and contacts into one overall app
– This is pretty good looking
– Has LinkedIn button, Yahoo News, Facebook, Plaxo contacts, Yelp
– Salesforce data interaction
– Ok, this is damn slick
– From an email, you can search everything inside the Sky Data app
– Can do structured and unstructured data search
– iPhone version due out by end of the year

Dial Directions

– SayWhere brings voice transcription into the iPhone
– Say an address or location into the phone and it launches the apps you select as if you typed in the information
– Much safer, faster and simpler than typing into the phone
– User can talk to the iPhone instead of typing
– Very powerful speech recognition software

Rocketron

– Free service
– Will allow people to receive personalized news and information wherever you go
– Hear the news you don’t have time to read
– Uhm – isn’t this the same as PimpMyNews
– 7 second advertising
– can setup personalized preferences so you only get the news you like

Maverick Mobile Solutions

– Launching "maverick secure mobile"
– helps you protect your data, track your device, retrieve your data and disable the device remotely
– application works in a hidden mode
– everything done on the stolen device is sent via sms to the reporting device
– I have to say, this is VERY impresive
– if the crook removes the battery – when crook puts the phone back in, the alarm goes back in

WebDiet

– Launching MealSearch
– locates via GPS, enter the number of calories and meal preferences
– MealSearch looks for a meal close to where you are that match your criteria
– Select the meal you want and you can buy it direct on the mobile
– Then go to the location and pick up the meal
– there is a food dashboard – keeps track of what you eat
– you can adjust specific foods too (no broccoli)
–  "meal by meal" sends daily meal ideas to your mobile or email
– if you splurge for one meal, it can adjust the other meals accordingly
– my guess is that they will only send you food that gets them their affiliate revenue

Xumii

– make your mobile phone social
– believes it’s too hard now to use the phone as a social tool
– the Xumii service is a social address book
– connects all of your services to share media
– can create groups to make messaging easier
– new "walls" feature is basically a newsfeed

post concluded

Here’s Feinn’s overview of MixMatchMusic: