I am back! It took me a week to get my head straight, catch up on work related stuff, and read all of YOUR wonderful blogs.  For those of you curious of where I have been, I was in San Francisco to meet up with the fine folks behind Seesmic and to attend the amazing Tech Crunch 50 Conference. Here is my story…

Tuesday, September 3rd- I sign on to Seesmic at about 10:00 p.m. and find out there is a contest running to win a ticket to be a Seesmic Reporter at Tech Crunch 50 the following week.  Rules were simple: Make a 30 second video (which I broke the rules! whoops.) explaining why you should be the Seesmic Reporter at the conference. I stay up till around 1:30 am figuring out what I was going to do. I came up with an idea, did a few takes and then finally submitted. Wait… What happened to my video? It got lost in cyberspace and I went to bed slightly annoyed.

Wednesday, September 4th- After I find out that my video was in fact “gone,” I rushed home after work to record my final chance for the ticket. To tell you the truth, I contemplated scrapping the whole thing- thinking, “Why would they choose me? I am a goofy guy from Raleigh and and the conference is next week in California!”  At 9 p.m. they share the news with the Seesmic community and I am granted a $3,000 ticket to one of the biggest Tech Conference’s of the year.  Here is the final product:

Thursday, September 5th- After talking with my Pops (dad you rock- I can’t thank you enough!), discussing time off with the boss, and planning for next week, I believe I am set to start packing. The Surealism has yet to set in…

Sunday, September 7th- MY BIRTHDAY! (spent all day on the plane). I arrived in Cali exhausted from travel and and the three hours of sleep I got the night before. The lovely Giselle (awesome employee of Seesmic) picked me up and treated me to great hospitality during my stay. We went out to a San Francisco Seesmic meetup that night and I got to meet other users I have been talking to for the last three months! How amazing. The crazy thing is that I felt like I knew all of them for years…. (the power of Seesmic!!)

I am finally into the Conference… Where do I start?

Day 1

I knew arriving at the TechCrunch50 Conference, I wanted to  get out there and experience everything. I first spent my time hanging out with the Seesmic Crew, getting the chance to explain the site to anyone passing by. Until… Dun Dun- Loren Feldman Stopped into record a video. Yes, I put him on the spot to explain Seesmic to others…

The rest of the day I got to go around visiting various companies and hear their pitches. There was an aspect to the whole conference I truly enjoyed- Every CEO and budding entrepreneur would graciously take any question I asked. Even the ill-fated, ” Soo….. What is your revenue model? and how are you going to drive people to use your product/service?” question.

Day 2

Exciting day!  more companies to hit- more schwag to grab (yes I went away with about 13 shirts and gizmos and gadgets galore). The highlight of the day was Whit Scott, Giselle, and I “punking” Ashton Kutcher. Yes, you read that correctly- we semi-punked Ashton. Here is the dialogue as I remember it:

(Whit walks up Ashton with NO hesitation)

Whit: Hey Ashton, do you have time to do a quick interview?

Ashton (looking down, playing with iPhone): Quick interview… how long, like 5 minutes?”

Whit: That’s it.Thanks.

Ashton: (Looking up from iphone confused) That’s it..?

Whit: (quickly) Yep! that is it.

Ashton: (half smile) oh, alright… yeah no problem. (Whit, Giselle, and I book it for added effect)

Day 3

Last Day of TechCrunch 50! Although I am sad it is coming to close, I truly had an enjoyable time with everyone I met and hung out with.  We all celebrated with the closing party hosted by Seesmic! Seesmic studio in the backroom, party out front… how perfect. Here are a few “rando” photos from the “less serious side” of the conference. ** Stay tuned, part two of TechCrunch 50 Review (where I will tell you what companies to keep your eyes on… IN MY OPINION)**