That’s who the producers of the Demo ’06 conference say you’ll be mingling with if you attend their event next week in Phoenix. The way it works is this: they filter through some 300 new upstarts that apply to present, reducing the number down to about 70 — the ones they think are the most promising. Demobannercrop3 Those then each get to do the famed six-minute pitch. How do they choose the companies? Who knows — behind some secure curtain, I’m sure. Do VCs lobby hard for their favorites? Ya think so? There sure are a ton of VCs that attend this thing, big names included, based on a partial attendee list I saw a few days ago.

This pitching at Demo is a big deal — hard to get a chance, then even harder to do it well. You talk about pressure. Check it out: watch some Demo presentation videos here — just look on the right side and click on the link “2005 DEMOfall,” for example, then pick a company. There’s a real art to presenting at Demo, according to Guy Kawasaki, a master presenter himself. Guy, of course, is also a VC these days. Wonder how many VCs will be blogging from Demo? I’m told 20-30 more bloggers besides me are part of the press contingent, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see some VCs hammering away on their laptops, too.

Which reminds me, I’ve been meaning to do a post on the practice of VCs blogging. There are several of ’em doing it. Hey, they got the money, honey — *and* they got the time! Watch for that soon.