Ever since our first Realtime Crunchup last July, the momentum behind realtime streams just keeps getting stronger. Which is why TechCrunchIT editor Steve Gillmor and I are putting together another Realtime Crunchup on November 20 in San Francisco. Tickets are on sale now (the price is $395 until the final week when they will go up to $495—there are only 500 available).
The one-day event will take place in San Francisco’s fabulous new Intercontinental Hotel. The agenda is still coming together (hey, they don’t call it realtime for nothing). But I am pleased to announce some phenomenal speakers who will be joining us. Many of the members of our Realtime Board will appear on stage, including Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, FriendFeed founder (now Facebook exec) Paul Buchheit, Microsoft’s FUSE Labs chief Lili Cheng, and angel investor Ron Conway. Twitter COO Dick Costolo will also sit down with me for a conversation about the transition from RSS to Realtime, among other subjects.
The CrunchUp will explore different aspects of the realtime stream, including its rise as a new communications backbone, the different stream platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Google Wave) and how to navigate between them, and the business opportunities that the realtime stream presents. Is the realtime stream the ultimate marketing vehicle, or just another spammer’s paradise? What are the new streams that are emerging? For instance, we will have one panel focusing on just geo streams and how that ties into emerging mobile apps. Another panel will explore how private and public messaging systems are becoming one and the same. I think I’ll put Gmail creator Buchheit on that one, along with the CEO of TC50 startup Threadsy, who has also agreed to attend. We’ll be sharing a fuller agenda next week.
What is really exciting for me, though, is the incredible response from startups who want to launch at the CrunchUp, such as Brooklyn’s sorta-stealth Hot Potato, which is doing some very innovative things around geo-location, mobile apps, and events. Some established startups will also launch new products. There are still a couple slots left. If you want to launch a realtime product at the CrunchUp or have an eye-opening demo, please contact us at realtime [at] techcrunch [dot] com.
The CrunchUp also gives us a great sponsorship platform for start-ups and brands to reach both conference and networking attendees. Please contact Heather Harde to learn more about sponsorship packages and custom opportunities.