[TC40 some of the thousand attendees. Photo by Shel]
TechCrunch 40 was an incredibly successful first attempt at what I am sure will become a flagship conference. Those 1000-plus attendees who gathered at the SF Palace Hotel will be able to boast they were there when it started; there at the creation of a dynasty, when you could pay a mere $2 K to sit on the floor and eat Chinese food out of a To Go box; there at the first conference that was supposed to spotlight only 20 startups from all over the world, but grew to 40 or 140, or 143, when you add on the last-minute additions of AOL, Google and Yahoo, who are not exactly your usual startups.
TC40 was also no place to use technology to launch technology since both mobile and wifi connection was often spottier than a leopard with measles.
Yet this conference worked and it do so extremely well. While nearly everyone seemed to have a kvetch or two, everyone--presenting companies, press, investors, social media gadflies and a seemingly endless supply of uninformed publicists--they all were delighted to be in there and they all want to come back for the next one.
Media coverage has been abundant. In fact, it may be the-covered tech gathering ever that did not have Steve Jobs on stage. I usually live blog events like this, so I can be among the first voices. But there were times, when everyone in the room seemed to have wifi connection except me, so this time, I may be among the last. So much has been said already about the companies, those gems for which we assembled, that I can think of very little to add.
What I thought I would do instead is to review the conference itself. I know a bit about tech conferences and hopefully what I have to say is constructive and useful.
Inspired by Joe Thornley, I think I'll go long.
Screw Shakespeare
Do you remember "Shakespeare in Love." There was absolute chaos, and then the curtain would go up and everything would be perfect. Well, TC40 had chaos in it's preparation and it was certainly not a flawless production, but from where it was a few weeks before the event to where it stood at it closing, shows is an interesting success story.
Prior to the event, the number of presenting companies changed often enough to make a Bingo addict happy. First, 20, then 40, then 140 and finally 143. First, start ups some of them so pre-financed that they could not afford the the entrance fee that competing conferences charged. Then Facebook, Google, Yahoo and AOL. First Arrington warning social media companies tha connection in the arcane Palace for internet and carriers would be less than desirable, followed by co-producer Jason Calacanis imposing last minute rehearsals and threatening to expel companies that did not present live Demos.
Experience and conventional wisdom flagged this event for me. Lots of last minute changes often result in disaster, despite the Shakespeare movie experience. This psed a personal problem. If I cover an event, I call it as I see it. I have written negatively about a client when I felt he deserved it. But if you happen to be a member of the social media community, you need to have a very strong death wish if you pan an event produced by Jason Calacanis and Michael Arrington.
Thank the gods this conference came out so well. How did it do so? I don't know, it's a miracle. But screw Shakespeare. It's really the worng metaphor and the right one is much closer to home.
TC40 was very like any of the social media startups the conference spotlighted. These days, we all get to see early, messy beta and watch as chunks of coal transform into diamonds in remarkably short time. The Internet allows--no requires--that they get out in public where we end users can try the stuff, poke, sometimes kick and occasionally shout at you. It is amazing the speed f transformation we see and that is my perspective of what I witnessed at TC40.
Each segment--featuring five startups who then came back to be questioned by a panel of alleged experts--got a little bit better than the previous segment. What was happening? The producers were getting better and more comfortable in their roles. Their tech crew was refining their efforts a fast clip. The companies who would present later figured out what was working and not working and adjusted course. The panel experts who came up later, learned that the niceness of the first group failed almost as much as the arrogance of the panel that followed in a later segment.
By the end of Day #1, TC40 had pulled out a "not bad" rating from hallway pundits. It had been a firehose of a day. Twenty startups had presented, plus AOL, plus a fireside chat between Arrington and the amazingly on-message Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook. Arrington is a top notch interviewer and this was my favorite part of the day.
But the breaks had been brief and the lunch was a messy event. There had been no "night before" reception, which is my idea of a good way to start.
But as I walked a few blocks to my cheap parking garage, I realized that there was an important element that had been missing from my experience. Online social networking is neat, but nothing beats face-to-face meetings and, hopefully, nothing will.
That apparently got resolved after I had driven home to a warm wife and the thrill of a night of client work. A TC40 party started at 9:30 pm. Adult refreshment flowed freely. people mixed and exchanged pitches. There was flirting and arguing and joking. The event was loud and ended late I was told, two sure signs of a successful party
The importance of this event should not be underestimated. People come to schmooze at least as much as they come to sit and watch. It may have been the tipping point for TC40.
I walked in a tad late to the opening of Day #2, but I immediately sensed a changed atmosphere. Attendees were engaged. It was more than the fact that the number of chairs in the room almost matched the number of buttocks (unlike Day #1). But there was more. Arrington and Calacanis seemed to be enjoying themselves and enjoying each other. The opening set was considered the best segment of the entire two days by most people I asked.
Even the review panels had improved. This is a portion of future TC40s I would like to see tweaked. After each group of five companies presented, a representative of each company would come back onstage, where they be reviewed by industry luminaries whose job it seemed to be to rate and critique them. With 10 people seated at a long tabe on the daid, Calacanis served as emcee from out in the audience. Then there were two microphones where attendees could queue up to ask questions, which seemed to happen only when the panelists and Calacanis ran out of words of their own, which seemed to me to be an all-too-rare occasion. I like to here what attendees have to say. I like it when the presenting companies can talk to the people who paid to see them--or maybe I'm just pissed off because I did not get the chance to ask my own question.
Next year, would suggest that the five company representatives be joined by only one expert. That expert's job would be to ask follow up questions,, rather than opine. Then allow much more time for audience participation.
Bonding and Confirmation
Maybe it was that everyone bonded the night before while I was sequestered with work, but the co-hosts were loser, funnier and more attuned to attendee mood swings. Like beta managers, they had done a tweak here and a tweak there and the program was getting fine-tuned. the hallway ratings were much higher on Day #2.
Calacanis and Arrington made two smart calls. One presenter, used a canned demo and Calacanis hooked them off the stage. Another company, limbo itself way below the bar for good taste, obviously catching the producers by surprise. Arrington immediately apologized, saying this company had been deceptive in the content it would serve up.
Decisions like that have to be made on the fly. To overreact or under react can cost a conference its future.
By Tuesday night, Arrington and Calacanis were a cool team, apparently enjoying themselves, each other and the event that they had somehow pulled off. So were attendees and most of the 140 companies who had bet their futures on participating.
One company executive admitted to getting very little attention in the Demo Pit was still happy. "Hey, we can tell people all year that we launched at TC 40. That alone makes the experience worth it," he told me.
By the closing event, where Mint won it's $50 k award, presented in the form of an oversized check like they used to have on game shows when TVs still had rabbit ears,there was a festive mood to the 750 or so attendees who had stayed to the end.
People had socially networked live and in color. Deals were being discussed in corners and in the hallway, new relationships were forming, investors and entrepreneurs were engaged in mating dances and, for the most part, attendees were happy customers.
When Arrington and Calacanis asked the crowd if there should be a TC40 next year there was resounding confirmation.
What's the takeaway?
I try to leave every conference I attend with a singe paragraph that tells me what I learned. For TC40 it's this:
Social media is no longer about sites. It's about sharing. It's about finding your friends and their digital content wherever it is located on the web. It doesn't matter whether you keep your stuff on Flickr or YouTube or Facebook. What matters is your ability to share it. This trend is putting the power into the hands of small peer-to-peer networks. This is a good thing for people and a nice fat headache for traditional marketers who still do not understand what it means to join the conversation.
This leaves me not knowing whether to gloat or cry. The idea of you sharing with friends as the sites themselves fade into background was what the book "Global Neighbourhoods" was going to predict. But it is happening too fast and I could not predict it in book form faster than it is occurring.
Maybe my next book will take an historic perspective rather than a look at the future. Maybe I should write about the birth of of Facebook, ending it with the IPO that has not yet happened.
There I go again, making a prediction.
