This weekend in San Francisco, Startup Weekend, an amazing event founded to help good technology ideas get traction, is being hosted by Women 2.0!
Registered attendees will gather tonight to meet, listen to speakers, pitch their ideas and form teams. For the next two days they will work furiously to get their ideas into working prototypes getting insight and guidance from Startup Weekend staff and mentors with the opportunity to pitch and present on Sunday for recognition, prizes and bragging rights!
Event details
URL: http://www.women2.org/women2-startup-weekend-2011-san-francisco-announcement/
Twitter hashtag: #w2sw
Date: November 18th through 20th, 2011
Where: The Hatchery, 625 2nd Street, San Francisco, CA
Registration page: http://w2.startupweekend.org/tickets/
Who can attend: Everyone! Women, men, programmers, non-programmers, business minded people, graphic designers, front end designers, business development, project managers and anyone interested in learning what it takes to team up and build a successful app!
Event Description:
Women 2.0 and Startup Weekend are partnering on November 18 – 20, 2011 at The Hatchery in San Francisco, CA for Women 2.0 Startup Weekend! We provide the co-working space and brain fuel, and you bring the energy and innovation to build something big over the weekend. Both men and women are invited to get your ticket for Women 2.0 Startup Weekend now!
Maybe you have an idea, maybe you don’t?
Maybe you started a startup before, maybe you haven’t?
Maybe you are a developer, a designer, a do-er?Bring an idea, or just yourself! Come to join a team and start a project (or company) over the weekend. We will be hacking and building for 54 hours! Startup Weekend is a place to test ideas, contribute to ideas, and meet potential founders. We are bringing together the most innovative, talented, and out-of-the-box entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley.
How to Participate
Note: I am looking for an extra ticket for my friend for this event so if you have one, please contact me or send me a tweet on the hashtag.
Registration for this event sold out within days (sorry!) but you can still participate by following the Twitter hashtag all weekend and checking out the various apps that will be launched. If you’re attending, you can share your experience by tweeting, blogging, tumbling, Google+’ing, Facebooking, snapping photos and sharing to Instagram/Flickr/Facebook and talking about the event with people. I attended the Startup Weekend in May an amazing time and it caused me to pivot my career focus in a new direction.
I’ve been asked to be a mentor (Business technology consultant and social brand building) and will be at the even Saturday afternoon starting at 1pm. There are several other amazing mentors as well including:
- Cathy Edwards (Chomp CTO)
- Shelly Roche (Foodspotting engineer & Vayable CTO)
- Dave Kochbeck (AtomPass CTO)
- Anna Billstrom (Facebook app developer)
- Jen-Mei Wu (Ruby on Rails developer)
- Jean Hsu (Android developer)
- Kirsten Jones (LinkedIn developer advocate)
- Sasha Laundy (Twilio support engineer & Women Who Code founder)
- Cindy Alvarez (KISSmetrics product head)
- Christine Lemke (business & strategy maven)
- Renee DiResta (venture capitalist, web dev & two-time Startup Weekend hacker!)
I’m looking forward to meeting Cathy Edwards in person as my roommate Alex Braunstein works at Chomp as a software engineer. I’ve met Sasha before and think she’s pretty awesome!
I’ll be stopping in Friday evening to hear Sarah Allen and Alexa Andrzejewski speak. Sarah is amazing. She has been one of the pillars in San Francisco when it comes to women and programming. Sarah has created, initiated, supported and driven several events and programs around encouraging women to learn coding including the Ruby on Rails Outreach Workshop For Women which I took last year.
Startup Weekend Schedule
Here’s the schedule from the Women 2.0 Startup Weekend page:
Schedule for Friday, November 18
6:00pm – Registration starts
7:00pm – Dinner & Networking
7:20pm – Welcome & Speakers
7:30pm – Pitches Start
9:00pm – Attendees vote for the top ideas
9:15pm – Teams start forming and discussing ideas
10:00pm – Start to formalize teams and take an inventory of skills. Be honest, and direct about what resources and skills are needed for the weekend. You may stay and work as late as the venue will allow.
Friday night Speakers will include Sarah Allen (Co-Founder & CTO, Mightyverse) and Alexa Andrzejewski (Co-Founder & CEO, Foodspotting) who attended the 2009 Women 2.0 Startup Weekend looking to build a great product, finding instead her first angel investor! Today, Foodspotting has been downloaded over one million times globally and has secured Series A funding from Blue Run Ventures. Alexa will speak about her Women 2.0 Startup Weekend experience and more.
Schedule for Saturday, November 19
9:00am – Arrive, simple breakfast & coffee
9:30am – Teams formed and setting up workspace for the weekend
12:00pm – Lunch
1:00pm – Call for needs & skills
2:00pm – Mentors help teams one-on-one. They are here to help!
3:00pm – Zico break
6:30pm – Dinner
7:30pm – Mid weekend check-in, status reports, call for help
10:00pm – Finished for the day. You may stay and work as late as the venue will allow.
Startup Weekend Mentors will drop in to advise and assist teams on Saturday and/or Sunday afternoon. These mentors include Cathy Edwards (Chomp CTO), Shelly Roche (Foodspotting engineer & Vayable CTO), Dave Kochbeck (AtomPass CTO), Anna Billstrom (Facebook app developer), Jen-Mei Wu (Ruby on Rails developer), Jean Hsu (Android developer), Kirsten Jones (LinkedIn developer advocate), Sasha Laundy (Twilio support engineer & Women Who Code founder), Cindy Alvarez (KISSmetrics product head), Christine Lemke (business & strategy maven), Renee DiResta (venture capitalist, web dev & two-time Startup Weekend hacker!), Adria Richards (WordPress guru) and more to be announced!
Schedule for Sunday, November 20
9:00am – Arrive, simple breakfast & coffee
10:00am – Call for help (this is self motivated, so don’t be shy)
12:00pm – Lunch
12:30pm – Mentors arrive… ASK QUESTIONS
3:00pm – Gut check. Start prepping for presentations
4:00pm – Dinner
5:00pm – FINAL PRESENTATIONS
7:30pm – Judging & awards
8:30pm – Wrapup
9:00pm – Go home!
- Have been to a previous Startup Weekend?
- Have you formed a company through startup weekend and if so, how are you doing now?
- What are your thoughts on what can be created in a weekend?
- Do you think you’re not “techie enough” to participate?
