I’ve tried to stay off the grid as much as possible in terms of public events and such, but I’m excited that I’m starting to ramp up my speaking engagements, starting off with Tomorrow’s Web at the end of this month in San Francisco. Sure, Tomorrow’s Web maybe a competitor to the Teens in Tech Conference, but in the end, we’re aiming for the same mission, so I’m gladly going to help where I can to achieve our mission. Grant and his team have put in a lot of work into Tomorrow’s Web, so I’m excited for the upcoming event! I’ve also got three 20% off conference ticket codes that the first three people can use. If you want to attend Tomorrow’s Web on Saturday, July 31, use the code “DANIELBRU” when checking out, and your ticket price will be deducted 20%!

I’m really excited to announce that at Tomorrow’s Web, during my talk, on stage, I’ll be announcing two new exciting things that Teens in Tech is working on, as well as side project that Michael Costigan and I have been working on.

Also, since stepping down as CEO of Teens in Tech Networks, I’ve had a lot more free time to think about the future of the Teens in Tech Conference with my business partner Sam Levin. In the coming weeks, we’ll be announcing some exciting news from the company that I’ve been hinting at on my Twitter feed.

Not to be left out, of course, that I’ll be starting college in a few weeks as well, which I am more then excited about. I’m more excited about the courses that I’ll be taking, like Video Production, Digital Video Editing, and more!

Another thing that I’m excited about, is the launch of iPhone Case Finder. Much like its sister site, iPhone Case Finder is all about finding iPhone cases that are right for you, the user. We’ve been focusing on iPhone 4 cases, after the whole “Antennagate” issue, so if you need an iPhone 4 case, iPhone Case Finder is your place. Check out the site, and let me know what you think!

I’m really excited for the future, and I hope that you all can join me in it!

Update: So after some miscommunication, and disorganization, Tomorrow’s Web was unfortunately canceled. Hopefully next time around, they can prevent the issues.

Well, that didn’t take long! A few days ago, I got an IM from Lachy Groom, a friend of mine. Lachy and I had a chance to work together when he was the Director of Product Management at Teens in Tech Networks for a little bit. If you don’t know Lachy, then you probably should. He started PSDtoWP.com, and grew it into a sustainable company. Since then, he’s sold the company and moved on.

After I got Lachy’s IM, we quickly got down to business. He was launching a new venture, and we wanted to work on it together. That venture is launching today — it’s called iPad Case Finder. The name speaks for itself, but in a nutshell, iPad Case Finder helps iPad users find their iPad case.

If you think about it, peripheral makers are like developers in the App Store. There are tons of apps in the App Store that do the same exact thing, but some stand out. Same with cases — they all do one thing, protect the product, but some do it better then others. So how do you know which one is the best?

The concept is simple, and so is the execution. Here’s how it works. You go to iPad Case Finder, and you can either look at all the cases, or search for cases from a particular case maker. Once you find a case you’d like to find more information on, you click on the case, and you get a hi-res photo of the case, along with a detailed description of the case, with features, etc. You also get price information on the case, where you can buy the case, and similar cases to the one you selected.

This is just the start for iPad Case Finder — we’ll be adding tons of features like ratings, user profiles, favorites lists, and much more. Check out the site, and let me know what you think! We’re still fixing bugs, and adding features, but we’re on the right track.

Update: How crazy! Just launching today, and already getting on Daring Fireball!

I’ve made a very important decision in my life that was not easy, but I feel is the right thing to do at this time. Today is my last day as President and Chief Executive Officer of Teens in Tech Networks, the company I started over two years ago.

I would not have made this decision if I didn’t feel confident in my successor, and their abilities to lead our team. Spencer Schoeben, who is currently the Chief Operating Officer of Teens in Tech Networks, will become the the President and CEO of Teens in Tech Networks.

Spencer has been my right hand man at Teens in Tech Networks for the last seven months, when he joined Teens in Tech Networks in October 2009, and has been an amazing asset to the company.

I may not be the CEO anymore, but I will remain the Chairman of the Board of the Directors, and remain a key asset to the team helping with the products and the business.

I’m excited to see the company grow under new leadership, and being Chairman will give me a different perspective on that. I’m also looking forward to attending college, like I mentioned in my last post. Who knows — maybe I’ll have a new company by the end of the summer!

Thanks to our amazing Advisors, and the amazing team we have at Teens in Tech Networks. I feel very confident that Spencer will be able to lead Teens in Tech Networks into its next phase.

About two years ago, I “gave up” on school. What does that mean? Well, I just stopped caring. I didn’t see the purpose of the curriculum my teachers were attempting to teach me. Until very recently, I only thought of school as a waste of time. I wanted real world experience, which is where I went wrong.

I recently had a conversation with Meebo Co-Founder and CEO Seth Sternberg. Seth went to Yale for his bachelors, and Stanford for his MBA, which he actually didn’t finish, but that’s besides the point. We spoke about a lot of topics around school, and how if you look at the people that I look up to from companies like Rock You, Meebo, Facebook, Microsoft, they all had one thing in common — they went to college. They may have not finished college, but they went.

I haven’t exactly taken college seriously, until I got this wake up call from Seth and others.

Today, I’m extremely happy to say that I’m going to college, and attending the College of San Mateo (CSM) during the fall semester in 2010. I’ve already taken my placement test, figured out my base classes, and have scheduled myself for orientation.

Never in a million years did I think that I would be saying this, but I’m truly excited to go to college. After I got the email saying I’ve been accepted, it was one of the happiest feelings I’ve had.

To make it even better, minutes after getting accepted, and getting my new student identification number, I got my email account for CSM, which happens to be hosted on Google Apps. I have a feeling I’ll be alright in college

So that’s the story of college — I’m going, and I’m truly happy that I am. Also, don’t forget that I’m training for the Carlsbad 5000 in April, and you can track my progress through Twitter and the blog.

In April, I’ll be heading down the coast from San Francisco to Carlsbad to run in this event, with my sister, who also is a runner (it runs in the family).

I’ll be tracking my progress on Twitter, Facebook and this blog, so if you want follow my training, go ahead and subscribe.

On Saturday, February 6th, it was the second Teens in Tech Conference, or as we called it, Teens in Tech Conference 2.0. It was a really exciting day filled with amazing attendees, speakers, sponsors, giveaways and overall fun. I just wanted to take a little bit of time to go over some of things that happened at the conference.

The conference would not have been made possible with out the amazing content of our speakers. Danny Trinh from Digg kicked off the conference, and gave an amazing talk, just like last year. Joey Primiani started his talk off with a bang, entering the room in a space suit, and with a “fan club” — it definitely woke everyone up in the morning. Our first interview in the morning was with John Ramey and Zak Hassanein, the Co-Founders of isocket, a new startup that handles advertising solutions for companies, which recently raised $2 million in funding from top VC’s and Angels’ in Silicon Valley. Tim Showalter-Loch from Best Buy talked to the crowd about what Best Buy, a large electronics seller is doing to attract teens, and to make their business more eco-friendly, as well as their new project, @15.

Our amazing sponsors had a few moments to demo their products, and give a little talk about them. Following that, we had lunch along side some networking between attendees.

Alex Nichols kicked off the afternoon sessions talking about marketing and entrepreneurship in the 21st century — Adam Debreczeni, who designed and built our conference web site, talked about designing for youth, and gave some really interesting examples on good and bad designs. We ended up the afternoon with a eco-friendly talk from SmartPowerEd, an interview with Josh Shipp, and a really great talk from Dropbox Co-Founder and CEO, Drew Houston.

Whenever someone registers for the conference through Eventbrite, I get an email notifying me. At 6:00 PM, I got a very interesting email from Eventbrite, saying that Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, just registered for the conference. My jaw immediately dropped. At first, I couldn’t believe that it was actually him, but when he showed up on time at 9:00 AM on Saturday, I was blown away even more. Steve was an amazing attendee, offered feedback, signed a few attendees personal MacBook Pros, and even helped us giveaway some raffle tickets!

The Teens in Tech Conference would not have been made possible with out the support of our amazing sponsors and partners. Most importantly, I’d like to thank Google for letting us use their San Francisco office, as well as provide snacks, drinks, audio equipment, chairs and tables for us to use. Not mentioned, Google gave away two Nexus One’s at the conference, plus t-shirts, puzzles, stickers, Wave and Voice invites, and much more. Some of our other sponsors, like Pana.ma gave away an iPod Touch, and Altec Lansing gave away amazing speakers, and list goes on. If you’d like to see all of our sponsors, check them out here. Lastly, special thanks to Rickshaw Bagworks for creating custom Small Zero Messenger bags for the conference.

If you weren’t able to make the conference, we streamed the entire conference via Ustream, where you can watch all the sessions.

Obviously, there is a lot that we can improve on for the conference, and we are always open to suggestions, but in my opinion, this years conference was much better then last year, in all ways. Thank you for making that happen! Until next year, we’ll see you online!

In some way or another, a line was crossed that should have never been. At this time, I do not want to go into details, but I will publicly say that I am truly sorry to my family, friends, TechCrunch, and especially the tech community. Since 2006 when I first got into the internet, I have felt comfortable, and working at TechCrunch has made this experience even better. TechCrunch is not to blame for any of this — TechCrunch has given me the opportunity of a life time. I can never say thank you enough for TechCrunch for the amazing last nine months I’ve had.

This is the first day of the next learning stage for me. Yes, I am young, but from here, I can only learn more. To my family, friends, colleagues and especially, TechCrunch, I am sorry. I am taking this entire experience, learning and moving on.

For those who have messaged me with your thoughts — thank you. At this point, I’d like to take some time to myself after the Teens in Tech Conference, to focus on school, and enjoy being a teenager. I’ve invited Michael and my friends from TechCrunch to come the conference as well.

Thank you for the support thus far, and I hope you respect my decision to have some privacy.

In January 2009, we had our first Teens in Tech Conference, where over 125 attendees came to the conference, and learned from our amazing speakers. We became the number one trending topic on Twitter, one day before the Super Bowl, which was a huge accomplishment.

This year, we’re coming back, bigger and better. Teens in Tech Conference 2.0 is at Google’s San Francisco office on February 6, and we’re thrilled to have Google as a sponsor. They’ll be supplying snacks and drinks, as well as the venue, throughout the day.

I’m even more excited about our amazing speakers including Joe Hewitt of Facebook, Danny Trinh of Digg, Vitor Lourenço of Twitter, Josh Shipp, Drew Houston of Dropbox, and many more! You can find the full list here.

And of course, we have our amazing sponsors behind us again this year, including Rickshaw Bags, who once again is making custom bags for the conference, Intel, Blue Microphones, JBL, Speck Products, Best Buy @15, RadTech, and more. You can also find the full list here.

And with that, I encourage everyone to register for the conference if you’re in town. And, for reading my blog, you get a special discount code! Just use the code ‘danielbru‘ when you register, and you’ll save 15% of your ticket price.

Hope to see everyone in San Francisco at Google’s office on February 6th!

My session is called Emerging Tech: Hot or Not? I’ll be speaking on Saturday, January 09, 2010 from 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM. All my session information is below — hope you can make it!

IPTV, WiMAX, LTE, Android, OLED, OpenSocial, Windows 7, cloud computing, 4.0 mobile broadband: Which emerging technologies, product categories and standards show the most promise for widespread success, and which are overhyped? Prepare for a lively debate between proponents and skeptics with a focus on what will be big at the 2013 CES.

Facility: LVCC, North Hall
Room Number: N258

Moderator:
Dylan Tweney, Senior Editor, Wired.com

Panelists:
Dr. Kevin Kahn, Senior Fellow, Intel Labs, Director, Communications Technology Lab, Intel Corporation
Gary Koerper, Vice President of Engine Systems, Mobile Devices, Motorola
Warren Packard, Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurveston
Kuk Yi, Corporate VP and Managing Partner, Best Buy Capital, Best Buy

Also, don’t forgot that I’ll be speaking at Macworld coming up in February 2010. Happy New Year everyone, and happy holidays!

Telecom Italia has invited me to participate at their upcoming event, Under 21 – Digital Natives on November 18 in Rome at Capitoline Museum.

“Digital Natives” is a project on the future of innovation and digital culture designed and produced by Telecom Italia, Wired, Foundation Romaeuropa, and CATTID University La Sapienza.

I’ll be speaking with a great group of young (well, under 21!) individuals, including; Salvatore Aranzulla, Jessica Brando, Marco De Rossi, Nicholas Greek, Andrea Lo Pumo, and Valerio Masotti. They will be live streaming this event, which you can find here.

I’ll be staying in Italy from November 14, through the 21, mostly in Rome. If you are an Italian entrepreneur, lets get in touch — I would love to learn what your working on! Thanks to Telecom Italia for inviting me — I look forward to this great opportunity. Till then — ciao!