Save the date: On October 20, the first TechCrunch Munich event will take place at Sun Microsystems in Kirchheim-Heimstetten. The event kicks off at 2 pm and ends with a networking night in Munich City. The organisers expect a chock-full house with up to 150 start-ups, investors, consultants and finally Mike Butcher of TechCrunch Europe.

The initial platinum sponsor is Sun Startup Essentials which were also supporting this year's edition of the next conference. Sun Startup Essentials (SSE) was our first sponsor this year and did a really great job to help make things happen. Many thanks for that!

Although the ticket sale for TechCrunch Munich won't start before September 21, SSE member start-ups get cheaper pre-release tickets. Also on board are gate Garching Technology and Entrepreneur Center and b-neun Media & Technology Center Munich, SevenOne Interactive, Cribb and some investors.

Ticket sale will start on September 21. You might want to follow sun4startups on Twitter to get the latest news. The official hashtag is #TCMUC09.

In less than two weeks, everyone and their uncle will probably be heading to Cologne for the first dmexco (Sep 23/24). It's the successor of the late OMD, a Düsseldorf-based trade show. I think of both as kind of Web 1.0 events. But that's not the reason I won't make it to Cologne.

The reason is PICNIC, a pretty nice conference and event that takes place in Amsterdam every September, this year from the 23rd to the 25th. And since I don't yet mastered the art of bi-location, I had to opt for one of both events. So Mark Pohlmann who heads our Advisory Board will be in Cologne and I will travel to Amsterdam.

And what's best - you can, too! I've one spare full conference ticket to share. Please leave a comment (don't forget to add a mail address) and name a reason why to attend PICNIC.

And while we are at it, check out the brilliant lineup filled with names like Nicholas Negroponte and Niklas Zennström.