The Media Nuke That Is TechCrunch Disrupt

I told you so. For the last few months in the run-up to TechCrunch Disrupt in London last week, I’d been telling everyone I knew in Europe that what we were bringing would be a different type of event to this global city. The first aspect of this was that, unlike 99% of conferences out there, no-one appearing on stage at Disrupt remains unchallenged about what they say. We rack up our journalists in front of every speaker and we hold their feet to the fire. And as you can see from the coverage, there was quite a few incidences of rather warm feet by the end of it. But that also means speakers step up to the plate and give their all in explaining how their companies are faring. Normally good speakers are made great because of this.

The second aspect of Disrupt is the sheer amount of media that attends. We see that particularly in San Francisco. But London, being a centre for global media (what credible media outlet does NOT have an office in London?), helped us amass the greatest number of journalists to cover Disrupt than we have ever seen outside Silicon Valley. Not only was the tech press there, but also the mainstream media, from TV channels to online to print.

What is the upshot of these vanity metrics? Well, bluntly, enormous amounts of coverage for the startups that appear both on stage, in the Alley, and even those just wandering around as delegates. That’s the magic of Disrupt, and it can’t be taken lightly. If startups are about one thing — other than becoming big global success stories of course — it’s about getting attention.

The first day for Disrupt London saw around 100 media outlets attending, including The Financial Times, City AM, The Independent, Business Insider and CNBC.

Some highlights included Tim Armstrong speaking live with Bloomberg live as well as CNBC and BBC World Business Report, the BBC World New’s flagship business programme. CNBC were at the event throughout the day, covering the event across three shows: Squawk, World Exchange and European Closing Bell.

The BBC’s flagship current affairs programme, Newsnight, was also there for the whole day filming a piece which eventually appeared online. They focused on the Battlefield. BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service for Spanish-speaking countries was also there, focusing on Startup Alley.

The second day of TechCrunch Disrupt in London went extremely well, with top tier media attending including The New York Times, CNN, The Daily Telegraph, The Times and The Evening Standard. In particular, City AM, the free daily newspaper for the business and financial heart of London with a circulation over 108,000 in print alone, gave us particular support with news from Disrupt appearing on the front pages several times.

We also had a strong broadcast presence with APTN; Reuters TV who also spoke with start-ups; CNBC were down again and spoke with startups and TechCrunch staff.

Social media around Disrupt also ran into the thousands of Tweets and millions of impressions via social.

Disrupt is a Media Nuke, so just remember that when you are deciding whether to attend next year…

Picture courtesy of Heisenberg Media

MEDIA COVERAGE OF DISRUPT LONDON

CNBC VIDEO:

The BattleField

Startup Alley

Hackathon

Justin Kan interview

Tim Armstrong interview

Transferwise interview

City A.M.
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