The TechCrunch50 and DEMOfall events surely butted heads this year. Both contenders got it on back-to-back in San Francisco, barely allowing us to embrace the excitement. Competition drives the market, yes, but did their proximity really drive anything except a coffee binge?

. . .or was it spectacular, enough to up the ante even further?

DEMO’s signature Spring event in early March will again bless us with a bevy of new start-ups. Will we also see TC50 contend with DEMO in early 2009?

Prediction: This is a prediction that TechCrunch will announce a Spring version of TC50. We are defining Spring as sometime between February 1, 2009 and June 1, 2009 – for the dates of the conference, not the announcement of it, to be clear.