The Skinny blog is written by Rick Smith, editor and co-founder of WRAL Tech Wire and business editor of WRAL.com.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – TechCrunch is coming to the Bull City for a “meetup” on July 10, and the Triangle’s tech community is all atwitter about the chance to receive some publicity from the popular Silicon Valley-based tech news website.

An event also is scheduled in Charlotte the next day. The North Carolina stops come after meetups in Savannah, Ga. and Atlanta.

“TechCrunch is doing some stops around the South and wanted a Triangle location. We grabbed them,” Billy Warden of the media relations firm GBW Associates, tells The Skinny.

“The interest has been huge.

“TC definitely has an allure for tech companies large and small. Should be an interesting night!”

Indeed.

Tech entrepreneurs often crave publicity – for fund raising, marketing and in some cases ego gratification. Making the TechCrunch blog is high on the list.

While the event, from 6-9 p.m. at Tyler’s Taproom in the American Tobacco complex, is free, registration is required.

TechCrunch also made clear that it needed a site and sponsors for each event. 

“We understand that cost is an issue for startups, but so is publicity, which is the entire reason we’re doing this in the first place,” TechCrunch said in a blog.

Sponsors have to pay from $500 to $800. Here’s what they get:

“$500 will get your logo and a brief description of the company in each post related to the meet-up. There are usually about three leading up to the event, and one during the event. This will also get you a spot on our TC Meetup Banner, which will be hung at the event.

“$800 will get you all the benefits of a logo sponsorship, along with your own space at the event to demo and hang your own signage.”

Several Triangle firms are already listed as sponsors: Triangle Startup Factory, Digitalsmiths, Argyle Social, Netsertive, Geomagic, SciQuest, Relevance, Sharefile/Citrix, NC Idea, The Escapist, Groundwork Labs, Shoeboxed, Bandwidth.com, ReverbNation, GBW, The American Underground and the American Tobacco complex.