TC50: Demo Pit angry over lack of WiFi

TechCrunch50 has been plagued by a lack of internet connectivity, according to emails we’ve received and other reports online.

As well as affecting people on the floor, the biggest losers from the WiFi problems are the 100 companies in the demo pit, who from one account I have are furious, particularly given that unlike the presenting companies, they had to pay to be at the conference.

Mixed reports on EVDO and 3G access. Some demo pit companies do have cards, but coverage isn’t great. The issue being that when you’re demonstrating a web startup, having access to the internet to demonstrate your product is a necessity.

Here’s some of the feedback via Twitter

“Demoing Powerset at TC50, in between Zivity (good location) and Wixi. But still no WiFi? Wishin’ I were at DEMO.” Mark Johnson on a stall in the demo pit.

“tc50 demopit is just a pit right now. No wifi, no demo.” matteofabiano

A wry observation: “Funny. There are more tweets about the broken WiFi at TC50 than about the actual event… ” schillmoeller

There does appear to be some good news for companies in the demo pit though:

“There’s good news & bad news. Since the wifi at #TC50 was down most of today, today’s Demo Pitters are invited back tomorrow. Yay!/Ugh! “ J-Strizzle

Even Scoble couldn’t stay on message

“I hear that at Demo the wifi works. Not here at TC50.”

As one email to me put it: “I know the attention this amateur hour gets is frustrating the hell out of them.”

If you have any thoughts on the debacle or inside information, leave a comment, or send us an email. We’ll also consider running any anonymous rants.

(source image credit: Magerleauges)