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. While I was outside catching up, I heard many people saying they were excited to hear Brooke Burke speak on the Crossing the Mainstream/Online Divide panel. Hanging out in the back lounge, I ran into the Co-founder of the Twiistup Twiistup 6 took place last week and this time around, under new management, the event went through a few changes. Instead of a one evening mixer that highlighted the showoffs and

To all the people who whined that Twiistup’s startup competition was unfair, here’s my answer: All startup competitions are biased. I’ll teach you what I learned so you can use it to win other startup competitions. Twiistup founder Mike Macaadan and his crew worked for months to You’re right. Now stop whining and learn to win.

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.