Today, we are releasing 100 tickets for “The Web Starts at the Grassroots” Roundtable Discussion prior to the TechCrunch Austin Ventures Meet-Up at Pangaea. Tickets are $50, with all of the proceeds benefiting the Lance Armstrong Foundation.
The Roundtable will be held at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center located on the University of Texas at Austin campus, starting at 3:00 p.m. (Austin Time) on Thursday, September 25. This will be similar in format to the Mobile Web Wars Roundtable I hosted in July—two dozen founders, CEOs, VCs, and execs in a room talking about a single issue, live streamed over the Web. The Roundtable will focus on how to use the Web to build grassroots support for startups, brands, politicians, and social causes.
Tom Ball, a partner at Austin Ventures, is helping me put the Roundtable together. So far, the growing list of participants includes:
• Greg Bettinelli, EVP of Business Development and Strategy at Live Nation
• Vinay Bhagat, Founder of Convio
• Andrew Busey, CEO of Challenge Games
• Matt Corey, VP of Marketing Golfsmith
• Jeff Dachis, Founder and former CEO of Razorfish
• Jay Hallberg, Founder and EVP Marketing of Spiceworks
• Brett Hurt, Founder and CEO of Bazaarvoice.
• Paul Korzilius, Manager of Bon Jovi
• Sean McDonald, Director—Community | Conversations at Dell
That’s right. Bon Jovi’s manager is going to be there. I am very excited about that. (Korzilius also formerly managed Cher, Queen, Cheap trick, and the Scorpions). The point of the Roundtable is to explore how effective grassroots marketing and organizing on the Web really is compared to more traditional forms of mass-media marketing. If you have questions for the panelists or topics you’d like us to explore, please suggest them in comments. Or if you are a startup founder or grassroots organizer for a political campaign or philanthropic cause and want to join the Roundtable, email me. We still have some openings. (Anyone from the Obama or McCain campaigns would be particularly welcome).
Tickets for “The Web Starts at the Grassroots” will also provide you with entry to the TechCrunch Austin Ventures Meet-Up. Reserve your tickets now , as we only expect to release one additional round of tickets prior to the event.
The TechCrunch Austin Ventures Meet-Up will be held at Pangea, where we will feature local start-ups and other sponsors, starting at 5:30 p.m. (central time) and running to 10:00 p.m. (or whenever they kick us out). We also have a handful of three-day passes to the Austin City Limits music festival, including backstage access and admission to the Austin Venture tent, to give away to sponsors and designated attendees.
Sponsorship opportunities and demo tables are now available for companies to show off their products. If you want to support the event, please contact Jeanne Logozzo or Heather Harde. If you are a member of the press wanting to cover the event, please contact Sarah Ross.
Attendee identification will be checked at the door. Tickets are not transferable and not refundable. If you use your name to purchase multiple tickets, your guests must arrive with you to check in at the door.
We look forward to seeing you in Austin.