Jason Calacanis (Sequoia Capital) and Michael Arrington (techcrunch.com) have announced a new conference called the TechCrunch20. Twenty companies over two days will get an opportunity to present to 250 to 500 of their peers (and competitors, the media, VCs, the press, etc.).

Now, to anyone who says "Hey, this sounds alot like the DEMO conference" - I have to say that it is, and at the same time, it couldn't be philosophically more different.

The concept behind DEMO is that the most innovative products can apply to get their 6 minutes of glory, and after a careful review by a supervisory board, the best and brightest get their shot on stage in front of potential partners, VCs and customers.

The reality is that what gets most amount of review is the company's bank accounts. Many sources state that the prime point of consideration is the ability to pay the demo fee which runs about $20K.  For many cash strapped companies, it becomes a choice - spend the cash and hope that one of the VC sponsors likes what they see and get funded, or don't participate and hope that you can still squeeze by until you get first revenue.

As the co-founder of two startups, $20K is a luxury I'd love to be able to afford. When a conference designed to give new companies exposure to VCs and partner opportunities starts to quote participation fees in terms multiple months of a staffer's salary - something's horribly wrong. Especially because the real beneficiaries aren't the startups.

The real beneficiaries in this process are the VCs. They get to see dozens of quick pitches from companies looking for funding and can fast track into due diligence if there's something that gets an immediate hot response from the crowd. For their sponsorship, they reduce their risk and get to see a month's worth of pitches in hours. Sure, the startups giving the demonstrations benefit as well, but rest assured, if the VCs weren't seeing this as a golden opportunity to find their next big money-maker, they wouldn't be sponsoring the event.

This is what's so refreshing about TechCrunch20. The team behind the conference believes that the next great innovations will come from passion-projects driven by individuals after hours during the few hours of free time that they have after their pay-the-bills job or for startups where the team is getting paid just enough so that they can try and bring their product to fruition. So, if your product is accepted by their vetting board, you get to present for free. The cost is borne by the sponsors, which are still expected to be VCs, the media and other larger companies all looking to take a piece of the next big thing.

We'll be watching as the show starts to come together.