rumormonger, chris shipley, demo, jason calacanis, michael arrington, techcrunch40

Who's not coming to Demo? The startup that got kicked out

We hear that Chris Shipley and the rest of the Demo conference team are coming down hard on companies who violate their exclusive contract. A tipster "has it on on good authority" that one presenting company has been "yanked off the stage" at tomorrow's fall Demo conference in San Diego, because it demo'd its wares at Michael Arrington and Jason Calacanis's competing TechCrunch40 conference last week. No surprise there: The whole point of these startup-demonstration conferences is to show something new, and an already-launched product won't make the cut. But Shipley's crew is being especially tough: We hear that the company isn't gettting its $18,000 entrance fee back either. So who is the culprit? And did they make the main stage, or did they lose out on Demo just for debuting in TechCrunch40's also-ran DemoPit? If you know anything more, fill us in.

9:57 PM on Sun Sep 23 2007
By Megan McCarthy
1,083 views
8 comments

Comments

andyfox1979 at 02:41 AM on 09/24/07
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hey megan, to give ownership to a person who's name ends in "S" is done like so:
Calcanis'
cowsandmilk at 05:15 AM on 09/24/07
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@andyfox1979
you can do either...
And for someone who is correcting grammar, you might want to learn use whose
cowsandmilk at 05:16 AM on 09/24/07
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@cowsandmilk: of course, I might want to learn how to write too, since I left out some words...
Owen Thomas at 07:10 AM on 09/24/07
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Connectedness Index: 509
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@andyfox1979: Not on Valleywag, it's not. And not on any other publication ruled, most days, by the Chicago Manual of Style. The only exceptions that tome offers are for Jesus and Moses. And despite Jason's protests to the contrary, he is neither.
waynelambright at 09:05 AM on 09/24/07
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WOW!... 18 grand to demo. Why not just buy some text ads to create awareness or spend that money on swag, it would probably go further.
The_Age_of_Plastic at 10:05 AM on 09/24/07
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Demo Conferences - The most profitable start-ups of the Web 2.0 Revolution.
Ladyz at 11:14 AM on 09/24/07
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It seems to me that DEMO has been going on now +15 years? If there was no value why would companies like Palm, Tivo and countless other companies that had successful exits or IPOs choose to use this conference as a viable launching pad? Sure the fee is really high but so is the potential upside likely more than buying some text ads. Just my 2 cents. :)
Jimforbes at 12:43 PM on 09/24/07
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nothing is free. Companies selected to show at Demo sign a contract. I'm of the belief that contracts are binding. Break the contract and pay the price. Of course i'm a little prejudiced, I co-produced Demo for a lot of years.

Best,

jim forbes
escondido, CA