DEMO and VentureBeat come to Seattle Thursday; see you at the bar

I’m hitting the road yet again to visit major entrepreneur cities, on the prowl for the most promising technology products that I can find to showcase at the upcoming DEMO conference in Palm Springs, Calif.
Next up is Seattle, where I’ll be visiting Thursday evening.
Join me, local entrepreneurs, investors, startup professionals, and DEMO alumni companies for cocktails and conversation at Barca Seattle, located on Capitol Hill. The first 40 people who arrive receive a free drink. Sign up here. Co-hosting the event is John Cook, of the local tech/investment blog, TechFlash.
Well-known angel investor Andy Sack (”The Ron Conway of Seattle”) may show up to give us a few words.
As executive producer of DEMO, I’m looking forward to conversing with entrepreneurs about how DEMO works, and what it takes for a company to launch to the market in a world of increasing noise. DEMO certainly isn’t right for every company as a launchpad. But if a company is looking to grab market share extremely quickly and needs a very loud bang (and there are certain companies that will not only benefit from this, but need this) there are few better places than DEMO.
Unparalled media attention, corporate development contacts, top investors, and professional event production standards (the Internet works, you get high-definition video, coaching help, etc) make DEMO different from the rest.
VentureBeat recently took over the production of DEMO, and while we’re keeping the good stuff the same (the very best startups and products will still be launching, with their usual six-minute presentations), we’re spicing things up a bit.
First, we’ll extend DEMO’s reach to showcase very early stage companies, called alpha stage companies, something we debuted at the last DEMO in September. Second, we’re going to invite the very best business plans from the nation’s colleges and universities, a new part of the next conference in March. And we’re creating more disciplined theme areas for startups, too. See more in my recent post about this, and more.
As a reminder, we’re in San Francisco tonight at the Mighty bar, but that event is already “sold out” at 550 people.