Elin Blesener

Community Manager

Elin is the Community Manager for TechCrunch. Previously, she was one of the first Community Managers at Slide and was in charge of one of their most successful products, SuperPoke! Pets. Slide went on to be acquired by Google for $182 million.

Originally from Huntington Beach, Elin attended California State University, Chico, where she studied Organizational Communications and Art History.

posted yesterday

Win Admission To creativeLIVE’s “Secrets From Silicon Valley” Workshop

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We tend to do a fair number of giveaways here on TechCrunch, but today we’re giving away something extra special: power.  Well, no — it’s more like we’re giving away knowledge, but knowledge is power. So we’re giving away power. The world’s largest video education platform creativeLIVE is hosting a “Secrets from Silicon Valley” workshop later this week… → Read More

April 23rd, 2013

TechCrunch Giveaway: Last Two Free Tickets To Disrupt NY

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TechCrunch Disrupt NY is right around the corner. Everything kicks off this weekend in New York with the Hackathon starting on Saturday and going through the night until Sunday afternoon. The main event kicks off next Monday, where expert speakers and guests will come together to talk with us about the latest in technology. The full agenda is here. Every week we have been giving away a chance to… → Read More

April 15th, 2013

TechCrunch Giveaway: A Parrot AR Drone 2.0 And A Ticket To Disrupt NY

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Spring has arrived in New York City. The sun is out (besides today). The snow is finally gone. It’s time to shed the winter layers and head outside. And in the spirit of spring, we want to give one of our readers a ticket to Disrupt NY and the ultimate outdoor toy: A Parrot AR Drone 2.0. → Read More

April 5th, 2013

Giveaway: New Relic Has Four Free Disrupt NY Tickets Plus Free RC Helicopters #Nerdlife

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Disrupt NY is less than a month away. Tickets are still available at the early bird discount, but only for one more week. Or you can save some cash and win a ticket here thanks to our partner New Relic. Fresh off of raising $80 million at a near-billion dollar valuation and announcing its mobile app monitoring offering, New Relic is footing the bill for four lucky winners this week. If that… → Read More

March 29th, 2013

TechCrunch Giveaway: Fitbit One, Aria Smart Scale And A Ticket To Disrupt NY

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Happy Friday, everyone. As you know, we love giving things away here at TechCrunch, and this week, we have a Fitbit One Wireless Activity + Sleep Tracker and an Aria Wi-Fi Smart Scale to give away. But that’s not all! TechCrunch Disrupt NY is right around the corner and tickets are going super fast, so we want to give away another ticket to a deserving person who would like to attend (and… → Read More

March 18th, 2013

TechCrunch Giveaway: Kindle Fire HD, Kindle Paperwhite And A Ticket To Disrupt NY

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Want a chance to win a free ticket to Disrupt NY, as well as a free Kindle Fire HD and a Kindle Paperwhite? Yes? Who wouldn’t? If so, keep reading. → Read More

March 1st, 2013

TechCrunch Giveaway: Nest And Free Ticket To Disrupt NY #TCDisrupt

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TechCrunch Disrupt NY is right around the corner! We have already announced many influential speakers, including Kevin Systrom of Instagram, Roelof Botha of Sequoia Capital, Ron Conway of SV Angel, Kevin Ryan of Gilt Groupe and will be announcing many more soon. You can view the whole list of speakers and special guests we have announced so far here. Disrupt NY is going to be an amazing show. We… → Read More

February 22nd, 2013

TechCrunch Giveaway: Free Ticket To Disrupt NY Plus A New GoPro Camera #TCDisrupt

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As you know TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2013 is right around the corner. This April we will be, as they say, taking over the Big Apple. We have already announced a few of our special guests and speakers, including Instagram’s Kevin Systrom, Sequoia Capital’s Roelof Botha, SV Angel’s Ron Conway and David Lee, Thrillist Media Group’s Ben Lerer, Managing Director of Lerer Ventures… → Read More

February 8th, 2013

TechCrunch Giveaway: Brand New Lytro Camera And Free Ticket To Disrupt NY #TCDisrupt

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TechCrunch Disrupt NY, one of our biggest events of the year, is well on its way! We have already begun to announce which special guests and speakers will be joining us this April, but that’s only the beginning. We have so many exciting guests and speakers to announce, special after-party details to share, startups to meet with, and other surprises up our sleeves. In just a few months… → Read More

January 25th, 2013

TechCrunch Giveaway: Nike+ Fuel Band Plus 2 Free Tickets To The #Crunchies

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As you’ve no doubt heard by now, the 6th Annual Crunchies Awards are nearly upon us! Voting concluded last night and the last set of tickets are on sale now. If you want to purchase them in time for next week’s show you’d better hurry, because the tickets are going fast.

Next Thursday is going to be a night you will never forget. We have all-star surprise guests, musical guests and an Emmy… → Read More

January 22nd, 2013

Commenters, We Want You Back

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It was early 2011 and TechCrunch’s comment section was overrun with trolls. Bullies and asshats were drowning out our smart commenters. We hated our commenters because, well, they hated us. So we rolled out Facebook Comments in an attempt to silence the trolls — by removing their anonymity.

But we eventually discovered that our anti-troll tactic worked too well; The bullies and asshats left… → Read More

January 4th, 2013

TechCrunch Giveaway: Two Tickets To The Crunchies Awards #Crunchies

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The 6th Annual Crunchies Awards will soon be upon us and (if you hadn’t noticed) we just announced our new host. The Daily Show’s John Oliver will take the stage at this year’s Crunchies Awards and we couldn’t be more excited. Not only is he hilarious, but he has been nominated for multiple prestigious awards and won the Emmy Award for Best Comedy Writing in a Comedy or Variety Series in 2009 and→ Read More

December 25th, 2012

TechCrunch Giveaway: Nexus 4 And Nexus 10 #TechCrunch

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The presents are piling, the fire is crackling, the drinks are flowing and in some parts of the world the snow is falling. From all of us at TechCrunch, we hope everyone is having a merry Christmas. For this week’s giveaway, we wanted to do something extra special, because well, it’s Christmas! The lucky winner of this giveaway will win a Nexus 4 and a Nexus 10. Want them both? Details to enter… → Read More

December 6th, 2012

Gift Guide Giveaway: A Brand New Lytro Camera #LytroMeTC

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We’ve written numerous posts about the Lytro camera and have done gift guide reviews on it, so we thought — why not give one away? Thanks to Lytro, we have one free 8GB camera to give away.

The Lytro is one of the most sought after cameras out there right now because it’s so different. By using propriary systems, the photograph’s point of focus and now perspective can be altered after its… → Read More

December 6th, 2012

Today Is The Last Day To Nominate Your Favorites For The 6th Annual Crunchies Awards

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The 6th Annual Crunchies Awards are coming up fast and today is the absolute last day to nominate your favorites in technology. Nominations close tonight at 11:59pm PT and will not be open again, so think about who you would like to nominate, and go do it!

The Crunchies Awards are going to be held on Thursday, January 31st, 2013 at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco. The ceremony begins at… → Read More

November 16th, 2012

TechCrunch Giveaway: iRobot Roomba 650. Get Clean For The Holidays #TechCrunch

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Happy – almost – holidays! As you may have noticed, we have already started our ever-popular TC Gift Guide to hightlight some of the best gifts this year.

Since Thanksgiving is next week (time really does fly by) we wanted to give something away we think many people would love to have – a brand new iRobot Roomba 650 Vacuum Cleaning Robot. These things clean your carpet, tile, basically anything… → Read More

November 7th, 2012

More Tickets Released For Detroit And Chicago Meetups

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Our first stop for our Northern meetup series was Toronto and it was an absolute blast! Almost 1,000 hungry and thirsty techies poured into the Steam Whistle Brewery to hang out, drink, eat, mingle, meet and talk with us. It was an amazing time and we hope to go back very soon. Thanks again, Toronto, for having us. → Read More

October 22nd, 2012

Weather Puppy: Cloudy With A Chance Of “Awww”

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What’s better than checking the weather and finding out it’s going to be a beautiful day? Checking the weather with adorable puppies on it, of course. A Miami based startup has just launched Weather Puppy, a brand new weather app that may just be my favorite app this year. → Read More

October 19th, 2012

TechCrunch Giveaway: A New Samsung Chromebook #TechCrunch

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Google had a big day yesterday, for better and for worse. However, one of the most exciting stories to come out of yesterday was Google’s unveiling of a brand new, $249 Samsung Chromebook. Samsung’s new portable has a 11.6-inch screen, weighs only 2.5 pounds, and comes with 100GB of free Google Drive storage for 2 whole years.

So, as we usually do, we wanted to give all of our readers a chance… → Read More

October 5th, 2012

TechCrunch Giveaway: One VIP Ticket To Box’s #BoxWorks Event

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Last week, we gave away 20 tickets to Box’s annual BoxWorks event that’s happening October 7th-9th in San Francisco. There will be incredible speakers going, some of which include: Box CEO Aaron Levie, Andreessen Horowitz’s own Marc Andreessen, eBay CEO John Donahoe, Mozilla’s Brendan Eich, Nest Labs’ Tony Fadell, and many more. You can view the whole list of speakers and the event agenda here→ Read More

September 28th, 2012

TechCrunch Giveaway: Free Tickets To Box’s 2012 #BoxWorks Event

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Happy Friday! We have something special to give away. Box is hosting its annual BoxWorks event October 7-9 in San Francisco and we have a bunch of tickets.

Box has some amazing speakers on tap. Box CEO Aaron Levie kicks things off, followed by Marc Andreessen, John Donahoe, and Clayton Christensen. There’s also Tony Fadell, Gary Reiner and Gary Kovacs along with Adam Lashinsky, Andreas… → Read More

September 14th, 2012

TechCrunch Giveaway: 3 More Vizio Co-Stars! #TechCrunch

Vizio Co-Star

It’s been an awesome week here with the TechCrunch Disrupt conference so we thought we’d celebrate by giving three lucky winners another chance to win a Vizio Co-Star! This hot item is the first Google TV box that features support for OnLive gaming as well as video services like Netflix, Amazon and YouTube. → Read More

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September 11th, 2012

HereAreYourTechCrunchDisruptSFBattlefieldStartupsFromDay2

What a day! TechCrunch Disrupt SF day two kicked off with super angel Ron Conway and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee. Then we had Kevin Rose, Marc Benioff, Aaron Levie and many others. Not to mention Mike Arrington’s epic chat with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. Be sure to check out all of our live coverage of Disrupt SF day two here.

Yesterday, 15 companies presented in the Startup Battlefield… → Read More

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September 10th, 2012

HereAreTheTechCrunchDisruptSFBattlefieldStartupsFromDay1

Day One of Disrupt SF is officially over, and what a day it’s been. We kicked things off this morning with Bill Campbell and Ben Horowitz, who were followed by Jack Dorsey, Brian Lee and Jessica Alba, and Michael Arrington and Reid Hoffman. Dave Morin, Cory Booker, and so many more took the Disrupt stage today, as well. And that was all before the Disrupt Battlefield!

This afternoon we… → Read More

September 5th, 2012

Giveaway: New Relic Has Four More Free Disrupt SF Tickets For All You #DataNerds

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It’s a good time to be a nerd. The “nerd economy,” as we’re now calling it, is slowly but surely paving the way for geeks and nerds and nerd-geeks to someday rule the world. At long last. For me, it can’t come fast enough.

Until that day comes, nerds will certainly rule at next week’s Disrupt SF event. Not only will Facebook’s very own Mark Zuckerberg be there, but many, many more incredibly… → Read More

September 4th, 2012

TechCrunch Giveaway: Kindle And Free Ticket To Disrupt SF #TCDisrupt

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We have one more free ticket left to give away to a lucky fan who wants to come to Disrupt SF with us! We just announced a big surprise — Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.

Mark will be joining our all-star speaker list which now includes: TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, MG Siegler, Jason Kincaid, Marc Benioff, Jessica Alba, Brian Lee, Dave Morin, Brit Morin, Vinod Khosla, Ron Conway, San… → Read More

August 24th, 2012

TechCrunch Giveaway: 3 Vizio Co-Stars! #TechCrunch

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The Vizio Co-Star is the first Google TV box that features support for OnLive gaming as well as video services like Netflix, Amazon and YouTube. Sounds pretty awesome right? Here is another chance for three lucky winners to win one!

The Vizio Co-Star packs plenty of power in a petite package — it basically fits in the palm of your hand, as does the fancy, dual-sided QWERTY remote it ships… → Read More

August 17th, 2012

Giveaway: Four Free Disrupt SF Tickets, T-Shirts And Skullcandy Earbuds #DataNerd

New Relic Giveaway this Friday - elin@techcrunch.com - Techcrunch Mail

Hey guess what? It’s Friday! This year’s Disrupt SF is going to be action-packed, filled with interesting talks with amazing speakers and special guests, a stellar Startup Battlefield competition, unforgettable after parties, and much more. We’ve partnered with New Relic (who already disrupted their corner of the enterprise software market) to make an offer we think you’ll love. They’re giving… → Read More

August 10th, 2012

TechCrunch Giveaway: Phosphor Watch And A Free Ticket To Disrupt SF #TCDisrupt

PHOSPHOR Watches - Cool Digital Watches - E Ink World Time Watch, E Ink Digital Hour Clock Watch, E Ink Digital Calendar Watch & E Ink Ana-Digi Watch

Disrupt SF is right around the corner and is shaping up to be one of the biggest events of the year. We have already announced many speakers which include our very own TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, Marissa Mayer, The Honest Company’s Jessica Alba and Brian Lee, super angel Ron Conway, Vinod Khosla, Marc Benioff, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, Path’s Dave Morin, LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman, Kevin… → Read More

August 3rd, 2012

TechCrunch Giveaway: 3 Vizio Co-Stars #TechCrunch

VIZIO Co-Star

Vizio pulled off something amazing when they introduced the Co-Star, the first Google TV box that features OnLive gaming as well as Netflix, Amazon and YouTube. It’s a set-top box that can literally fit in the palm of your hand and ships with a clever, dual-sided QWERTY remote. Plus, it sold out pre-orders in the first 12 hours it was available. → Read More