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Why not just have the gear for recording available and let the pitchers decide when they're there if they're ready to do a public pitch/presentation?

If you're going to have people come back for a second or third time with updated presentations you could use it as a sort of graduation ceremony to have the thing published.

Although I'm not in the Valley, I think something like this would be helpful. It seems to me that pitch quality is related to how much exposure you've had to investors & customers. I think you can add value there, regardless of how much of del.icio.us was skill vs luck :-)

They might even get offers from a wider range of people than attend if it was broadcast. That's the point of TC50 right? To give people a chance to pitch in public.

I'm not sure I care for or would want a large audience.

You don't learn to pitch at TC50. You learn to pitch by having done it 500 times before you're on that stage. What's being talked about here are some of the first dozen of that 500. Recording your pitches for yourself is a good idea. Trying to draw public attention to them is not.