By Dom I’ve always wondered what a TechCrunch conference is like.
I first heard about TechCrunch as the biggest tech event where up and coming startups like Facebook or Twitter (back in 2012) get invited for a Keynote talk or panel discussion:
Still couldn’t fly to the U.S. yet but finally got to attend TechCrunch at Shenzen! Here’s a backstory on how I got to attend one for free!
For Geeks, TechCrunch is not just the Oscar’s or Davos of Tech. It’s also the conference where HBO Silicon Valley Series Pied Piper team pitched and won their first seed funding:
Let me backtrack a bit. Back in quarter four of 2019, I’m still a year away from completing my grad school bond to Dentsu. So all my extra income was from consulting and I was still saving up for the wedding budget as a priority. Paying an international conference ticket for a DIY trip wasn’t a luxury I had back then.
What made logical sense next was to craft a proposal, attach the “behind the conference scenes media coverage vlog” I did for DevCon Summit, email the organizers of TechCrunch Shenzen, and hoped for a media pass 😀
Few emails and last-minute flight booking confirmation, I was off to Shenzen to cover TechCrunch conference.
Here’s the letter I sent:
During the DISRUPT competition, I covered all the startups that pitched and published it here: https://medium.com/@techyjuan/robots-drones-and-hardware-startups-competing-at-techcrunch-shenzens-hardware-battlefield-2019-16b8bc502531
It was definitely one for the books. Here are the clips of what the conference looked like:
