The Crunchies 2008 – One Geek Girl’s Night Out!

Although I spend much of my time inside on the computer, I managed to pry myself away and geek out at TechCrunch’s 2^nd annual Crunchies Awards last Friday night. The event was held at Herbst Theatre in San Francisco and was attended by top tech-heads  Mark Zuckerberg  (CEO & founder of Facebook), Evan Williams & Biz Stone (founders of Twitter), Marissa Mayer (Product Manager for Google), Loic Le Meur (CEO of Seesmic), and yes, @McHammer!

The awards ceremony was a mish-mash of tech presenters, mini-interviews, and fairly predictable commentary. But thanks to the hilarious and highly technical musings offered by the Richter Scales new hit, the Standford Mobile Phone Orchestra (who played Stairway to Heaven on their iPhones), and the spicy Sesame Street inspired videos via Loren Feldman…..the event was worth the $65.

The Crunchies After Party was held across the street in the San Francisco City Hall Rotunda!  Drinks and food were aplenty, along with a little on and offline gaming! But I mostly enjoyed playing with my future birthday present (hint, hint @cyberhomes), the Microsoft Surface! Clearly the most high-tech coffee table one could ask for (like say, for her birthday). But at $15,000 a pop (plus another $5000 or so for the operating system), it will take me about 15 birthdays to earn one!  Still worth every penny in my opinion! I had a front row seat and played contently (wine in hand). Reggie (my hot date) and I also spoke with David Smith, Account Director at Wirestone, about the mainstream release of this unit (3-6 months), as well as how real estate professionals could benefit.  Check out our video below…

Personally, I think listing presentations would kick ass on the Surface. Imagine sitting around a coffee table leading your clients through a visual, hands-on presentation of your expertise, market comparables, and marketing plan. In addition, stagers and home improvement pros would be awestruck (I was) at the ability to place objects (like a tile) on the table and receive automated visual Web results for suppliers and comparisons.  Throw down a picture of your current home and view examples of what that tile would look like in your home, as well as other instant home improvements. This would be the perfect tool for showing sellers which upgrades to focus on to get the most value out of their home.  Obviously, the price is a bit steep for this market, but a progressive brokerage could definitely stand out in a crowd if placed in a comfortable front reception area. I wouldn’t let teenagers off the street play with it, but leading new buyers through a local pre-tour would be impressive to say the least.

Overall, the highlight of the evening was definitely connecting with some highly technical Twits. I briefly mentioned to Reggie that it would “make my evening” (honestly, my year) if the opportunity to meet @ev or @biz arose. And thanks to timing and Reggie’s keen eye, we spotted @ev and introduced ourselves. Evan Williams “@ev” is a blogfather and genius technical innovator who has founded both Blogger and the most popular micro-sharing platform, Twitter!!!! He was kind enough to let us give him the lowdown on Twitter for real estate and his gorgeous wife, Sarah, happily snapped a picture!

All in all, I’ll be adding The Crunchies to my “don’t miss” event list for next year as well.  But perhaps someone could hook me up with some preferred seats next time. I’d be happy to volunteer…say as the “hot chick award giver or stage babe” (i.e. Rumer Willis at the Golden Globes). I know models are usually chosen for that…but for technology awards I think a “geek girl” is much more apropos!