On TechCrunch we just announced our TechCrunch50 conference partners will be giving away an aggregate of $1 million in advertising to TechCrunch50 companies. Facebook, Google (Youtube), Microsoft (Bing) and MySpace are all participating with substantial donations. We expect additional partners will join shortly.

Head over to TechCrunch for all the details.

Our 50 companies are locked and loaded. We’ve got magic lined up, a power panel of experts and a big exhibitor hall DemoPit that will be filled with lots of start-up energy and chaos.

TechCrunch50 celebrates entrepreneurship, and we want as many start-ups involved as possible. There is still time to participate in TechCrunch50 with prices that can’t be beat:

$2,995 DemoPit Tables include 2 tickets to TechCrunch50 and one day to demo (that’s cheaper than 2 tickets to the conference)

The DemoPit is open to start-ups who have not yet completed a Series A Round of $500k or more in financing and have just launched or would like to launch their start-up in conjunction with TechCrunch50.

Demo for one day of the conference. We provide a 30” cocktail-height table, linens, tabletop sign, power and wireless internet access.

Companies who launch at the conference are eligible for Audience Choice voting to be the last presentation slot of the day on stage at TechCrunch50.

Else, all early-stage companies will get prime table-traffic access to the 1500+ expected attendees, including leading VCs, corporate buyers and biz dev executives, 200+ participating start-ups, 150+ credentialed press and other general attendees.

Press list distributed one week in advance of TC50. TechCrunch will announce all DemoPit participants on Monday, September 14. (Optional: Companies who choose to launch at the conference will be listed in the conference press release.)

BUY HERE, based on availability.

$8,000 Exhibitor Tables include 4 tickets to TechCrunch50 and two days to demo (as cheap as 4 early-bird tickets to the conference)

The exhibitor package enables early-stage companies to demo for a full two days of the conference and includes a 5’ rectangular table, linens, tabletop sign, power and Ethernet-based internet access.

Logo and 50-word business description on TechCrunch50.com and in printed program guide.

One ticket to our Monday night VIP dinner, honoring our TC50 companies, experts and event partners.

Press list distributed one week in advance of TC50.

BUY HERE, based on availability.

Hope to see you in just a few short weeks. Reminder, early bird ticket prices expire Monday, 8/31 at midnight pst. Buy now, last call.

We’ve just announced five new expert panelists over at TechCrunch: Don Dodge, Paul Graham, Jason Hirschhorn and Mike Schroepfer. They join the already announced expert lineup of Marc Andreessen, Roelof Botha, Ron Conway, Reid Hoffman, Tony Hsieh, Marissa Mayer, Tim O’Reilly, Sean Parker, Kevin Rose, Robert Scoble, and Yossi Vardi. Check out the full post here.

Tickets can be purchased here to watch Don, Paul, Jason and Mike help judge the 50 startups launching on stage at TechCrunch50.

Still haven’t made hotel arrangements for TechCrunch50? Entrepreneur and investor Travis Kalanick is offering up his San Francisco home, dubbed The JamPad, to two lucky TechCrunch50 2009 entrepreneurs during the duration of TC50 rehearsals and the main event. Additionally, he’s offering free meals, entrepreneurial advice, and coaching on your TC50 pitch. Kalanick says there will be a brief vetting process in order to determine who is awarded the free lodging. More information and instructions on how to apply are here.

If you aren’t lucky enough to get a spot at The JamPad, a list of hotels near the conference center can be found here.

We’ve been receiving a lot of interest in the DemoPit as of late. David Barrett, Founder of Expensify, launched his company in the DemoPit last year. He recently wrote a blog post outlining whether or not the DemoPit is worth it.

He writes…

Like anything, it is what you make of it. But if you go in with the right attitude and expectations, I’d have to say yes. It’s definitely worth it.

Read the rest of his thoughts here.

TechCrunch50 is just a few weeks away, and it’s time to announce more expert panelists who’ll judge the fifty launching startups in front of a crowd of 2,000 or so eager attendees.

Today we’re pleased to announce Angel investor Ron Conway, LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, O’Reilly Media CEO Tim O’Reilly, and tech blogger Robert Scoble will join us on stage at the event.

They’ll join the already announced Marc Andreessen, Roelof Botha, Marissa Mayer, Yossi Vardi, Kevin Rose and Sean Parker.

And yes, the experts are already jostling for the right to judge the new product that Penn & Teller will be launching at the event. But there are 49 other awesome startups showing their stuff for the first time, too.

Ron, Tim, and Robert were experts last year and have returned based on popular demand. Reid and Tony will be making their first appearances. Additional judges will be announced next week.

All the details for the conference are here. TechCrunch50 is an action-packed conference where fifty new startups launch over two days. The event will be held at the San Francisco Design Center, a huge and beautiful venue where we packed nearly 2,000 participants last year. Last week we announced Penn & Teller will be attending to launch a new product.

Tickets for the event can be purchased here courtesy of Eventbrite. We’ve slashed our early-bird prices from 2008 to $1995 through August 31. (Prices escalate to $2,995.) Students interested in volunteering for the event can contact Gené McPherson at gene@techcrunch.com. Additionally, exhibitor passes are available for $8,000, which include entry to the conference for 4 people, a 5’ exhibitor table, and other goodies.

	Ron Conway Ronald Conway has been an active angel investor for over 15 years. He was the Founder and Managing Partner of the Angel Investors LP funds (1998-2005) whose investments included: Google, Ask Jeeves, Paypal, Good Technology, Opsware, and Brightmail. He was recently named #6 in Forbes Magazine Midas list of top “deal-makers” in 2008 and is actively involved in numerous philanthropic endeavors. Ron was with National Semiconductor Corporation in marketing positions (1973-1979), Altos Computer Systems as a co-founder, President and CEO (1979-1990) and took Altos public on Nasdaq in 1982 and served as CEO of Personal Training Systems (PTS) (1991-1995). PTS was acquired by SmartForce/SkillSoft (Nasdaq SKIL). Ron has served/serves on Boards/Advisory Boards including: Twitter, Digg.com, Bright Mail, Ask Jeeves, Rupture (acquired by EA), Associated Content, Facebook, RockYou, ScanScout, Zappos, Trulia, StumbleUpon, Plaxo (acquired by Comcast), Photobucket (acquired by Fox), and Anchor Intelligence (co-founder). Philanthropically, Ron is Vice Chairman of the UCSF Medical Foundation in SF, Board Member of The Tiger Woods Foundation, and SF Homeless Connect, and on the Benefit Committee of Ronald McDonald House, College Track, and the Blacked Eyed Peas-PeaPod Academy Foundation.
	Reid Hoffman Reid Hoffman is Executive Chairman and a co-founder of LinkedIn. Prior to LinkedIn, Reid was Executive Vice President of PayPal where he was in charge of all business relationships: business development, corporate development, international, government relations, and banking/payments infrastructure. During his tenure at PayPal, Reid was instrumental to the acquisition by eBay and was responsible for partnerships with Intuit, Visa, MasterCard and Wells Fargo. Reid also has held management roles in significant technology companies, including Fujitsu Software Corporation and Apple. In addition to LinkedIn, Reid serves on the Board of Directors for SixApart, Kiva.org, and Mozilla Corporation. Reid graduated with distinction from Stanford University with a BS in Symbolic Systems and from Oxford University with a Master’s degree in philosophy and a Marshall scholarship.
	Tony Hsieh Tony Hsieh is the CEO of Zappos.com, which was recently acquired by Amazon. Since he joined Zappos full time in 2000 Zappos has grown gross merchandise sales from $1.6M to $840M in 2007 by focusing relentlessly on customer service. Prior to joining Zappos, Tony co-founded Venture Frogs with Alfred Lin. Venture Frogs is an incubator and investment firm that invested in Internet startups, including Ask Jeeves, Tellme Networks, and of course, Zappos.com. Prior to Venture Frogs, Tony co-founded LinkExchange, an advertising network that was successfully sold to Microsoft for $265M in 1998.
	Tim O’Reilly Tim O’Reilly is the founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, Inc., thought by many to be the best computer book publisher in the world. O’Reilly Media also hosts conferences on technology topics, including the Web 2.0 Summit, the Web 2.0 Expo, the O’Reilly Open Source Convention, and the O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference. Tim’s blog, the O’Reilly Radar, “watches the alpha geeks” to determine emerging technology trends, and serves as a platform for advocacy about issues of importance to the technical community. Tim is an activist for open source and open standards, and an opponent of software patents and other incursions of new intellectual property laws into the public domain. Tim’s long-term vision for his company is to change the world by spreading the knowledge of innovators.
	Robert Scoble Robert Scoble is a leading blogger, technical evangelist, and author. He is currently working for Rackspace where he is building a community for people fanatical about the Internet called Building43. Scoble is best known for his popular blog, Scobleizer, which came to prominence during his tenure as a technical evangelist at Microsoft. He currently works for Fast Company as a video blogger. He is also the co-author of Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers.

Great partners make great conferences

We’re really lucky to have the corporate support of some of the best names in the business. Sequoia Capital, Charles River Ventures and Perkins Coie all returned quickly to support us for the third year in a row. Google, Founders Fund, Microsoft and MySpace are back for their second year of partnership. Additional partners will be named in the next few weeks.