Way back in 2009 there was no large event dedicated to technology startups in the UK. TechCrunch, under Mike Arrington, was busy trying to get its TechCrunch50/Disrupt programme going in the US, and outside of local meetups, the TC event juggernaut still had yet to arrive in Europe. My friend and colleague Robin Wauters was doing Plugg in Brussels, but there wasn’t a startup event in London. So I launched a personal project, an event I called GeeknRolla, the name for which I literally dreamt up in a London pub. Despite those amateurish beginnings, about 400 people turned up that year, and I ran it again for the next couple of years as a fun side project. But times move on and after running it single-handedly for three years in a row, I’m going to bring the GeeknRolla “mojo” to a new event (while we wait for the TC event machine to spin up in Europe, and more on that later so stay tuned).

Thus, GeeknRolla and the Dublin Web Summit, are merging to create the London Web Summit. It’ll be on March 19th in The Brewery Venue, in London’s “Tech City” area.

We’ll we’ve run a lot of TechCrunch meetups all over Europe since 2007, getting to most of the major European cities. But there’s one place we haven’t got a chance to hit and that’s the tiger economies of the Baltic states: Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The latter is of course where, famously, Skype was largely developed. So we’re putting that right with an event in January, TechCrunch Baltics. It will be on February 9th, 2012, in the lovely city of Riga, Latvia.

The Europas, the European Tech Startup Awards, were held for the second time December 2010, in London, supported by TechCrunch Europe. It was the culmination of a month of online voting by the European tech startup industry for the finalists, where some 33,126 votes were cast, judges deliberated over the results and over 350 people joined the cream of Europe’s startups, VCs and entrepreneurs at a huge awards event. This year it’s getting bigger to get the community even more involved, create an even bigger event, and find the best startups in Europe. You can enter here and tickets are here. We are still taking sponsors for categories. For sponsorship opportunities please email Mike Butcher ( mike [@] mbites.com ) for further details or see here. Also follow the event on Twitter @TheEuropas and on Facebook.

Three years ago I created the concept of the GeeknRolla annual conference to bring together Europe’s technology startups to network with investors and talk about how they create and build themselves. This year we are stepping on the gas pedal. We want to launch 15-20 brand new startups there and our tagline this year is this: “Investor Dealflow. Startup Exposure”.

If you are a European startup in stealth or in private beta and want to launch at GeeknRolla, then fill out this form. The deadline is February 24. Any startup selected to pitch on stage will get one free ticket (for the person pitching) and there is no charge to pitch. We will notify all companies invited to pitch by March 4. If you have not heard from us by that time, your application was not successful. If you wish to attend the GeeknRolla conference you will then have to purchase tickets.

As with last year there is a special emphasis on launching startups and connecting them with investors, who will comprise our judging panels. There will also be a DemoPit for startups to showcase their products. We have some interesting plans to give exposure to even more. The venue will be Park Plaza Victoria, 239 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1V 1EQ. The now legendary GeeknRolla Afterparty, which will take place at the amazing, world-famous London nightclub, Pacha, will also help the networking. Ticket holders for the main day-long conference will automatically get in to the after-party, so fear not! We may release a limited amount of After-Party-only tickets at a later date. Details of how to get these will be available in due course, so stay tuned to the GeeknRolla Twitter feed and the event web site.

For sponsorship opportunities please email events director Aléna Dundas ( alena [@] techcrunch.com ) for further details. You can follow any specific updates on the GeeknRolla twitter feed.

What started out as a simple idea to try to explore Russia’s emerging Internet technology over an afternoon event in Moscow quickly gathered momentum. Which is why, on Monday December 13, TechCrunch Europe is coming to Moscow, Russia, for our first ever TechCrunch Moscow (to be held in English).

But we also decided that it would be awesome to have some Silicon Valley players attend virtually, either by video feed or via the telepresence equipment kindly provided by Cisco from their Valley offices. It beats traveling from the US.

So this is an unashamed appeal: if you are Mark Zuckerburg, Steve Jobs or someone of that elite level, then we’d love you to appear on stage via video link. Let’s build some links between Russia and the Valley. Maybe Ron Conway or Evan Williams / Biz Stone is available? We don’t know – that’s why we’re making this appeal. So, Ron, Biz, Steve or Mark – if you’re free, then contact TechCrunch Europe Editor Mike Butcher (mikebutcher AT techcrunch.com). Thanks.

On December 13, TechCrunch Europe is coming to Moscow, Russia, for our first ever “TechCrunch Moscow”. The event will be held at the first
Russian private tech incubator, the Digital October Center, located in a historical manufacturing building Krasny Oktyabr (or “Red October” / Красный Октябрь in Russian). You can now buy tickets here. TechCrunch Moscow attendees will enjoy a full day packed with speeches by the leaders of the industry, networking opportunities and a chance to preview promising Russian tech startups.

You can now check out the dedicated event web site here.

Co-organised by TechCrunch Europe together with Kite Ventures and Telemarker, the conference will focus on the key issues regarding tech entrepreneurship in Russia. TechCrunch Moscow is about supporting the startup and venture capital eco-system in Moscow and Russia. It’s also about uncovering the trends and the hottest companies and startups in the market right now. If you are in Europe for Le Web and want to spend a few productive days in Moscow, TechCrunch Moscow is your chance to check out the scene there.

The Europas, the European Startup Awards, were held recently in London. It was the culmination of a month of online voting by the European tech startup industry for the finalists, where some 33,126 votes were cast across 23 categories, eight judges deliberated over the results and over 350 people joined the cream of Europe’s startups, VCs and entrepreneurs on the 31st story of stunning venue with amazing views over central London.

A huge thanks to our awesome sponsors Moonfruit, Winston & Strawn / Bootlaw, Latitude, Fidelity Growth Partners Europe, TechHub and video streaming partner Newspepper.

Here are the winners and finalists and here’s a Wrap video of the event:

TechCrunch Europe / The Europas 2010 Final Cut from Newspepper on Vimeo.

The Europas, the European Startup Awards, were held last night in London. It was the culmination of a month of online voting by the European tech startup industry for the finalists, where some 33,126 votes were cast across 23 categories, eight judges deliberated over the results and over 350 people paid to join the cream of Europe’s startups, VCs and entrepreneurs on the 31st story of stunning venue with amazing views over central London.

A huge thanks to our awesome sponsors Moonfruit, Winston & Strawn / Bootlaw, Latitude, Fidelity Growth Partners Europe, TechHub and video streaming partner Newspepper.

Here are the winners and finalists.

Well, we’ve landed a great addition to our speakers at TechCrunch Moscow. Arkady Dvorkovich is a Russian economist and assistant to the President of the Russian Federation 2008. A Chess master, he spends his days advising the President Medvedev on economic policy, but also it’s approach to technology innovation strategy.

Dvorkovich is also no slouch as a blogger, with his own slot on The Huffington Post. Respect.

For those of you that need to get up to speed on this event, on December 13, TechCrunch Europe is coming to Moscow, Russia, for our first ever “TechCrunch Moscow”. The event will be held at the first Russian private tech incubator, the Digital October Center, located in a historical manufacturing building Krasny Oktyabr (or “Red October” / Красный Октябрь in Russian). You can now buy tickets here.

The Europas, the European Startup Awards, will be held this Friday, November 19, in London. The event is now totally sold out, with over 350 people coming from the cream of Europe’s startups, VCs and entrepreneurs.

The online voting, running for the last month (thanks to PollDaddy), has closed. Some 33,126 votes were cast in total. The Europas Advisory Board has submitted their results. The two have been merged and we now have our finalists. The winners will be revealed on the night. If you can’t make it, or just didn’t get a ticket in time, we’ll be posting a live video stream of the awards announcements and using the Twitter hashtag #TheEuropas.

A huge thanks to our awesome sponsors Moonfruit, Winston & Strawn / Bootlaw, Latitude, Fidelity Growth Partners Europe, TechHub and video streaming partner Newspepper.

The Europas will take take place at a ridiculously cool London venue: Paramount in the heart of London’s West End, which has amazing views across the city (Top floor, Centre Point, 101-103 New Oxford Street, London WC1A 1DD) (pictures below).

There has been a huge response from the community, and we’d like to say a huge thank you to the sponsors of the event so far. If there are any last minute requests to sponsor the awards and get in front of the best of Europe, you can email our vents director Aléna Dundas ( alena [@] techcrunch.com ).

Below you will find lots more information, but for now, here are our finalists for the awards, all of whom are listed on Crunchbase should you require more information:

The Europas, the European Startup Awards, will be held on November 19 in London. The event is now sold out. Boo hoo. But over 350 of you are coming. Hurray!

But there is still time to vote in all the categories here.

The deadline for voting in The Europas is Tuesday Midday Central Europe Time (CET) (or 11am GMT).

Don’t forget to Tweet or share the voting pages to your social networks, and you can of course vote for yourself. Use the logo above on your site to encourage voting.

The Europas will take take place at a ridiculously cool London venue: Paramount in the heart of London’s West End, which has amazing views across the city (Top floor, Centre Point, 101-103 New Oxford Street, London WC1A 1DD) (pictures below).

There has been a huge response from the community, and we’d like to say a huge thank you to the sponsors of the event so far. Want to sponsor and get in front of the cream of Europe’s startups, VCs and entrepreneurs? Then email events director Aléna Dundas ( alena [@] techcrunch.com ).

On December 13, TechCrunch Europe is coming to Moscow, Russia, for our first ever “TechCrunch Moscow”. The event will be held at the first
Russian private tech incubator, the Digital October Center, located in a historical manufacturing building Krasny Oktyabr (or “Red October” / Красный Октябрь in Russian). You can now buy tickets here.

TechCrunch Moscow attendees will enjoy a full day packed with speeches by the leaders of the industry, networking opportunities and a chance to preview promising Russian tech startups.

Co-organised by TechCrunch Europe together with Kite Ventures, the conference will focus on the key issues regarding tech entrepreneurship in Russia

TechCrunch Moscow is about supporting the startup and venture capital eco-system in Moscow and Russia. It’s also about uncovering the trends and the hottest companies and startups in the market right now. If you are in Europe for Le Web and want to spend a few productive days in Moscow, TechCrunch Moscow is your chance to check out the scene there.

As the programme is at full capacity, there are no longer any speaking slots so please do not ask the TechCrunch team for this. For all sponsorship and exhibitor inquiries, please get in touch with Events & Sponsorship Director Alena [AT] TechCrunch.com. Please ensure all emails are in English. Thank you!

More details on the final program will be announced, but for now we can say that Arkady Volozh, CEO of Yandex, Russia’s leading search engine; Annelies van Den Belt, CEO of SUP/Livejournal; Semyon Voinov, founder of Zeptolab and creator of “Cut the Rope”; Demyan Kudriavtsev, CEO of Kommersant; Lukasz Gadowski, founder of Team Europe Ventures; Oskar Hartmann, founder and CEO of KupiVip, and many others will be among the speakers.

On December 13, TechCrunch Europe is coming to Moscow, Russia, for our first ever “TechCrunch Moscow”. The event will be held at the first Russian private tech incubator, the Digital October Center, located in a historical manufacturing building Krasny Oktyabr (or “Red October” / Красный Октябрь in Russian). Our event will be part of the official launch of the building, which hopes to become Moscow’s leading digital / media / technology hub.

You can now buy tickets here.

The Europas, the European Startup Awards, will be held on November 19 in London. Right now we’ve sold out. Boo hoo. But over 250 of you are coming. Hurray! To a luck hawk-eyed few we’ll be releasing a small amount of remaining tickets (here, if you’re quick, just before the event.

The Europas will take take place at a ridiculously cool London venue: Paramount in the heart of London’s West End, which has amazing views across the city (Top floor, Centre Point, 101-103 New Oxford Street, London WC1A 1DD).

There has been a huge response from the community, and we’d like to say a huge thank you to the sponsors of the event so far.

Want to join them and get in front of the cream of Europe’s startups, VCs and entrepreneurs, please email events director Aléna Dundas ( alena [@] techcrunch.com ).

I’m excited to announce the members of The Europas Awards Advisory Board.

What’s so great about this year’s board (just as with last year’s) is that we have a fantastic spread of experience across the spectrum of the tech scene in Europe, and people who really know the scene inside and out.

So, The Europas are back.We’ll be honouring the best in tech across the web and mobile scene from across Europe. The awards will be in London on November 19 – grab a ticket right now. The Europas is all about geting together and celebrating the tech scene in Europe with an awards event which we can really call our own (check out the pictures and video from last year).

The categories we’ll be judging are:

Best Business or Enterprise Startup 2010
Best Advertising or Marketing Tech Startup 2010
Best Cleantech/Environmental Tech Startup 2010
Best Hardware or Gadget Startup 2010
Best Startup Founder / Co-Founders 2010
Best VC or Seed Fund of the Year 2010
Best Angel Investor of the Year 2010
Best Startup Advisor/Mentor of the Year 2010
Best Service Provider to Startups 2010
Best Ongoing Startup Programme 2010
Best New Startup in 2010
Best Platform Startup 2010
Best Exit 2010
Best European Startup Tool For Startups 2010
Best European Web Application Or Service 2010
Best Mobile Startup 2010
Best Entertainment, Sport or Leisure Startup 2010
Best Learning Startup 2010
Best Music Startup 2010
Best Video Startup 2010
Best Social Innovation Startup 2010
Best Commerce Startup 2010
Overall Winner: Judges Choice Only

Please email our events and sponsorship director Aléna Dundas on alena [AT] techcrunch.com regarding sponsorship opportunities.

Following last year’s huge success, it’s back. “The Europas” – The European Startup Awards 2010 – will honour the best tech companies and startups across the web and mobile scene from across Europe. The Europas is all about geting together and celebrating the tech scene in Europe with an awards event which we can really call our own (see last year’s amazing event). So put the evening of Friday, November 19 in your diary now. The first tranche of tickets are now on sale here.

These awards will recognise and celebrate the most compelling technology startups, Internet and mobile innovations of the past year, with the tech community invited to have a say in which finalists should be recognised. Leading lights of the the tech startup and investor scene will be invited to give away the awards to the winners, so you’ll have the opportunity to meet your tech heroes and heroines. The initial filtering will be done by referencing our database on European companies on CrunchBase (so make sure you are in it), then by public vote online, with the final Award winners to be determined based both on the popular votes received through website voting and by The Europas Advisory Board. You’ll be able to vote shortly.

As some of you may already know we’ve decided to postpone The Europas Awards for tech companies in Europe until after the Summer. Watch out for it in September, and how you can vote, soon. Meanwhile, we still wanted to have a meetup before the Summer break really kicks in, so we’re holding an event we’re calling “TechCrunch Summer Pitch Battle”.

It is on July 14 in London, 6.30pm at TechHub, Ground Floor, 76-80 City Rd, by Old Street tube station

Here’s how it will work:

1. Grab a ticket.
2. Work on a one minute “no slides” pitch for your idea/startup/company, and a 3 minute version with slides – but keep it very simple. PDFs are best.
3. Come along to the event and pitch your idea for one minute, no slides.
4. A group of judges selected from the startup and investor community will then select the ones they want to hear more from.
5. We’ll then load up the selected 3 minute pitches onto a laptop and projector and the finalists will face off with eachother for the glorious title of “Summer Pitch Battle Emperor”.
5. Afterwards we’ll do some “speed networking” over drinks.

That’s pretty much it. No need to submit a pitch beforehand. Just turn up ready to pitch.

The event will be sponsored by UKTI, Eden Ventures, Bootlaw and TechHub, the new co-working space for startups which is shortly to launch next to Old Street tube station (Ground Floor, 76-80 City Rd).

We’re changing our events policy at TechCrunch Europe. Over the last two years we’ve developed and run our own events across Europe, thanks to the unwavering and ever professional support of Petra and Rassami of 2pears. But now that the European startup scene is gradually getting its act together, we’d like to sort of “open source” our events and are looking to partner with existing events and organisations.

We’re looking to work with you wherever your local tech scene is in Europe. So, going forward, please contact me initially and I will pass you on to our events and sponsorship consultant (to be announced) for more details about partnering with TechCrunch Europe.

We’ll be setting as high a bar as possible about which events and organisations we’ll partner with, and we’ll be looking for a minimum level of financial commitment and a combination of all or some of these elements in each events:

TechCrunch Nordic – Copenhagen – 26th May 2010
TechCrunch Europe will host its 3rd TechCrunch Nordic event – joining Seedcamp on their European tour in Copenhagen at the end of May. Join us!

Tickets are now available here.