Christchurch Startup Weekend
Kiwi Robee wasn’t going to go to New York as the event there was too close to the Christchurch Startup Weekend. She was attending the Startup Weekend and thought after recovering from that intensive event, a flight to New York would be too much.
Then Sir Raphael suggested that if she went straight after the Startup Weekend she would be that tired that she would sleep on the flight…now there’s a thought!
‘Maybe New York is a possibility’…Kiwi Robee decided that it could be a really exciting adventure!
But first…
The Startup Event
Christchurch Startup Weekend was an awesome event held at the Epic Centre. On Friday evening participants met for a drink and to mingle. Bank of New Zealand put on pizzas for the evening meal and after that the pitches started.
Participants can do a 1-minute timed pitch to present their idea for a product/service. The pitch is not compulsory, just an opportunity, although it must be a new idea. Then each person writes a summary of their pitch on a large sheet of paper and puts it up on the wall.
All participants are given stickers and they can put the stickers on the ideas they consider the best and would like to work on. The most popular ideas that people want to work on are the basis that each team works on for the weekend.
The Weekend Action
Groups are formed and then the work starts. When you are forming a team, the idea is to get members with a mixture of skills. It is helpful to have at least one person with marketing skills in your team. Another person with financial skills and a member with coding skills. Also, someone with design skills.
Often teams miss out on one of them. It is not absolutely necessary to have all skills covered, as some work can be outsourced.
The teams work together over the weekend and are able to receive feedback from mentors throughout the weekend and also get the opportunity to do practice pitches to the mentors.
On Saturday the teams go out on the streets and/or online to get some feedback from their potential market. At this stage, if the idea is not looking viable, the whole concept may be shelved and an alternative found.
During the weekend the groups are mentored. Ideas are adjusted, sometimes completely changed. Great food is provided all weekend and lots of coffee, or tea if you prefer.
Startup Weekend – Full from Eighteen Eighty on Vimeo.
Judging
The judges do not have any interaction with the teams until 6pm Sunday evening when the judging takes place. Each group has 5 minutes to present their idea to the judges, other participants and the public are also able to come and watch.
After the judging, participants got to relax at “The Cuban” bar and restaurant while the judges went away to deliberate. At 9pm the results were announced and prizes presented to the prize winning teams. The winners were one very happy team.
The Startup Weekend Experience
The beauty of Startup Weekends is it gives participants invaluable experiences. They learn so much and some of these groups go on to the business world. At the least, people make new contacts and these can lead to other business relationships.
Startup Weekends are run in many locations all around the world. If you are interested do a Google search and if you can’t find your local organisers please leave a message on our site and we will see what we can do to help you.
Great Food
The food was absolutely scrumptious! It was worth more than the cost of the ticket just for the food! One exciting, enjoyable, challenging and fun event!
Lack of Sleep
The weekend meant Kiwi Robee had very little sleep – 2 hours Friday night – 3 hours Saturday night and no sleep Sunday night as the airport shuttle pickup was at 3:30am for the New York trip and she still had to pack.
Tiredness doesn’t really make for the best packing and Kiwi Robee managed to leave some clothes and her back pack behind…
Now off to New York!
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