TechCrunch UK, although running for a couple of months now, had its official launch last night. I was fortunate enough to get an invite, and I decided to fly over for the event primarily because Mike Arrington was going to be there and I wanted to finally meet him (we’ve had several conversations over email and phone/skype but we’ve never met in person). Mike didn’t show.
My annoyance at the no-show was tempered by the fact that I got to catch up with Hugh MacLeod, Fergus Burns and Robin Blandford. And I got to meet lots of interesting people like Jeremy Baines, Ryan Carson, Ivan Pope and Simon Grice from Etribes. And I got to be on the Gillmor Gang podcast.
Also, the (finger) food was plentiful and there was no shortage of drink (despite the three Irish guys best attempts!).
I took plenty of pics which I’ll post when I get back to my USB cable (note to self, pack USB cable in future).
So thanks to Sam for the invite, even if it was under false pretences, and congrats on landing Mike Butcher as your editor, I know he’ll bring a lot to the site.
Not only did Mike not show, but the fact that he didn’t show wasn’t mentioned and hasn’t been mentioned. And the Techcrunch UK site is keeping quiet about the whole thing. Ahem – don’t mention the founder. Ah well, we can do this stuff in our sleep and yes, with Mike Butcher on board it should be great.
Ivan – in fairness to Sam, afair he did mention that Mike couldn’t make it ‘cos he had to do a Gillmor Gang podcast in his talk.
Of course that is no excuse ‘cos Hugh sat in on and participated in (as well as inviting a couple of us to join) that podcast from the launch.
I’m intrigued as to why the TechCrunch UK site hasn’t mentioned the launch yet. The sponsors can’t be too happy.
It’s pretty simple really – We were so hungover on Friday we didn’t get round to it. Afterall, if Web 2.0 isn’t about small teams having fun, then what is it about? Expect something up today.
I hope they (TC UK) are able to keep using “TechCrunch”. This afternoon I let Mike Butcher know that somebody (in Germany) applied for a European trademark for “TechCrunch” back in May. It’s been accepted but not granted, yet. Check out the The Community Trademark Database using trademark no: 005081278.