Hey everyone, at the request of your local organizer (Laura) I’ve come out of hiding to do a hello post and get this event moving. I should be attending your weekend as the “facilitator” through Saturday. As a bit of background, I am fresh out of the MBA school at Purdue and for the past year have been dabbling in venture capital, some other startups and am currently helping out with Startup Weekend.
In the past, I’ve attended some other Midwest weekends and have seen the great communities that are built. It seems fair to say that people often underestimate the tech “savvy” of the midwest but the weekends I have seen have been absolutely great. Even more, the new format (version 2) is giving attendees the opportunities to do what they want and not worry about launching or forming a mandatory business. These weekends create great networks of people that are all interested in the same thing and Ann Arbor will surely be able to add to this midwest talent pool. I encourage you to dig deep and recruit all of your contacts (local and out of town) to come to this event even if it is to simply get together, have a great weekend, create a community, and enjoy some free stuff.
With that out of the way, here are some things to keep in mind. You’ve got 18 registered now and should be able to start drawing a much bigger crowd. For those reading this, get the word out with press releases, blogs, local contacts, local sponsors, handouts, interviews or anything you can!!
1 response so far ↓
1 Bill Tozier // Jun 5, 2008 at 8:37 am
Hi Clayton. Looking forward to meeting face to face and chatting.
Have heard about other Startup Weekends in the works, and I’m hopeful that the kind of open-space, emergent approach we take around here can helpfully inform others’ efforts, and your company’s supportive role in fostering innovation.
You know, it would be great to connect up with you on Twitter or Plurk. A lot of discussions going on, here and there—indeed, it’s probably the main channel.
Leave a Comment