DEMO, the twice annual “launchpad for emerging technologies” that debuted massively successful technology products and services including TiVo, E*TRADE, Salesforce.com, VMware, Six Apart, OddPost, IronPort, GrandCentral and Glam Media, returns on March 1-3 with a new crop of web startups and products. Seventy new web and tech companies will launch at the event, to be held at The Desert Springs, A JW Marriott Resort & Spa in Palm Desert, California.

And bearing in mind that 40 DEMO companies were acquired over the last 4 years, it’s likely the attendees will be present at the launch of the next big thing.

Free DEMO Passes for Mashable Readers

If you’d like to attend DEMO 09, you’re in luck: Mashable readers are eligible to win one of 3 free passes to the entire conference, each with a value of $2995! We’ll be giving away these passes over the next three days - that’s $8,985 worth of DEMO goodness this week.

For a chance to win the first of these passes, simply leave a comment on this post answering the following question:

“I’d like to attend the DEMO 09 emerging technology conference because….”

We’ll notify the first winner in 24 hours - get commenting!

Don’t want to wait? Sign up to DEMO now through Mashable’s exclusive discount page and get $600 off the price.

Passes are non-transferable and travel and accommodation are not included (but heck, we’re giving you a $2995 ticket for free!). Mashable is a DEMO media partner.