I haven’t written a post about the actual experience of being at TechCrunch 50, and I wanted to put it down on paper before I forgot about it. I have been reading other bloggers takes on it, like Maya Baratz’ take on the Silicon Ceiling, a statement about how there still aren’t enough women representing the tech world at events like these (or at all) as well as the Red Beacon guys’ article about what he wasn’t taught at Harvard (but learned at TC50). All of these recounts and recollections are good, they recount the event in that way I remember it too.
But for me it was also this:
1) Fascinating
2) Social
3) At times, annoying
Excitement was pouring from my ears.
I was fascinated by the ideas, and more importantly, the balls it took to have those ideas created, of the people all around me. I met a dude who created mechanical mannequins (which strikes me as a good name for a band) whose mechanically paneled bodies shift in and out, grow fat and thin, according to the dimensions it is programmed into. He showed me the use of these robots for instances where one is shopping online– you like that blue sweater? Would you like to see a mannequin who has your exact dimentsions wearing it? Would you like to see him wearing a one size larger or smaller version of it? You can see exactly how it would look over your growing pregnant (or beer) belly. It was super cool. The company, called Fits.me, is still in stealth, and the guy came not to get judged at the event but simply to spread the word. And it stuck for me!
I was fascinated with how much MORE people thought they could improve things we already use in our everyday functions. Lots of “better” email apps, way too many new social aggregators. Everybody went batshit nuts over Threadsy, who from their website claims to be hard at work creating “the brand new messaging experience,” where the service is “first truly integrated communications client. See your email, social networks, and twitter in one place.” Sounds meh, looks pretty, relatively compelling certainly, works well (at least in the demo.)
But where’s the beef?
I don’t know what I was expecting, bionic appendage startups, regenerating plastic startups, intelligent appliance startups– but what I got was a whole lot of Twitter focused, email improving, social chatter. It’s all good, but my mind wasn’t blown. I loved AnyClip which allows users to watch any clip from any movie instantly (because they’ve been tagged, clip by clip, minute by minute through every movie and are searchable!) I can see that being the next big thing– instead of sending your buddy the latest LOLcat link to crack them up, you send them a particularly funny inside joke via a movie clip. I can see it being used for e-greeting sites, and other communication services. I thought it was fun, and we certainly spend a lot of time having fun (where having= wasting and fun=time) on the internet.
I was fascinated by the volunteers I met– people from the Singularity University, smart, funny, startup running college students, avid bloggers and hyper geeks. I met some new acquaintances, maybe even made a couple new friends. I loved that! Everybody at the conference was outgoing, super social, and interesting to even walk by. They would catch your eye and start their pitch, some better than others, but all enthusiastic as though they had the next Google on their hands. I wish I had that kind of enthusiasm about something. People were quick to launch swag into your hands, their business cards (some WAY better than others, I’m lookin at you, mugshot guy, that was an AWESOME business card).
There were some annoyances though, mostly in the form of the actively Twittering audience. When I manned the Crunchbase booth, I kept an eye on an auto-updating Twitter search of the TechCrunch hashtags…the people who were talking shit about presenters, making fun of their accents, talking down the product in their high and mighty 140 character posts– what douchebags you were. Take looks around you, this is a place of people trying to change worlds (sure, they’re mostly social media worlds, perhaps not the noblest of causes to pursue) but motivated, bright, and focused nonetheless. Talking them down with insults reflects poorly only on you, not them. What jerks.
Overall, I had a ton of fun! It was great to see the judges in person, the super internet celebrities we gobble up gossip about online: Marissa Mayer, Kevin Rose,Mike Arrington, Jason Calacanis, Robert Scoble, Tim O’Reilly, Marc Andreesen. Getting treated to an open bar afterwards was an added bonus! But most of all, getting to meet the people around me who knew exactly what I was talking about when we chatted about the TechCrunch Twitter scandal, or the day that GMail hiccupped and the Twitterverse had a panic attack, those people made my experience fun and memorable.
Kevin Rose getting his facial expression analyzed by an emotion detecting software.
I do hope our paths cross again.
