Twiistup 6 took place last week and this time around, under new management, the event went through a few changes. was really enjoying the layout of the event and the fact that we were set up near a power source, but unfortunately being in the back made it hard to hear the people on stage. Hanging out in the back lounge, I ran into the Co-founder of the Twiistup 5 fan favorite, Michael Broukhim, from Totspot. Instead of a one evening mixer that highlighted the showoffs and gave people a chance to mingle and get to know the companies, it was expanded to a two day conference with panels, and plenty of time for mingling.

Brian Solis, for example, is at every one of these events. If you have a startup, next time you see Brian at an event, show him what you’re working on. I’ve heard several people complain that TotSpot won the people’s choice award at Twiistup because they gave tequila to guests, while other companies showed their sites. TotSpot got people’s To all the people who whined that Twiistup’s startup competition was unfair, here’s my answer: You’re right.

The Los Angeles technology crowd turned out in full for last week's Twiistup 5 event--a showcase for startups looking for exposure and funding--with over 1,000 attendees at a private aircraft hangar at the Santa Monica airport. The winner of the judge's choice award was Cogi , a Santa Barbara-based firm which develops a service for transcribing conference calls and meetings; TotSpot , which operates a social networking site that allows families to create private sites for their children, was awarded "Fan Favorite" for the most votes from the crowd. Cogi was co-founded by Robert Dolan, former co-founder and CEO of Callwave; Mark Cromack, co-founder of CrystalVoice Communications; and Palmer Jackson, who also was at Callwave.