I must admit that I am biased in this discussion, I already have a plane ticket and conference pass to the TechCrunch50 waiting. But for the entrepreneur deciding between the two, we have some interesting new. The Demo conference just announced that two winners selected by the judges will receive a combination of $1,000,000 in advertisements through media partners. This makes the paltry $50,000 that the winner of the #TC50 wins seem, well, paltry.
Demo of course is a storied conference. I recall before my personal journey in technology reading the early history of Palm Computing and their first public coming out at Demo. Their stage died right before they began to speak. Someone had tripped on a plug, it was righted eventually, the rest is history.
Of course, as @arrington is sure to point out, Demo costs money, the #TC50 is free. A major point, but to a company that is still stealth, but farther along, the fee should generally not be a problem. I have made my choice, and will support the TechCrunch50, I believe that the free entry aspect is important for bootstrappers. But if you have the money, and the time, and want a share of that million dollars in advertisements, you might just take a second look.
