Bloomington Startup Feb. 8-10, 2008 [a startup weekend event]

Bloomington, Indiana was a proud host to Startup Weekend, which completed a 54-hour marathon weekend of design, planning and implementation of a new company. Although the organizational structure is still in progress, the consensus of the majority who stuck around for all three days of work is that this was a great experience. There is a strong desire to take our project to the next stage and release our work to the world.

Our thanks to Andrew Hyde for bringing his experience (and SMTV) to Bloomington to get us started on our startup. After weeks of organizing on the local front to help make this event happen, it was very clear to me how valuable that kickstart was.

We tried to be as transparent as we could (until the legal team advised us to be selective), and evidence of the process is available on the official blog and in our Prologue stream. You can also follow the post-event news on our Twitter account. When we can announce our work to the world, we’ll do it there first.

UPDATE: As a result of this article, we expanded the number of available tickets. We’re shooting for 80 now.

W00t!

Herald-Times reporter Sarah Morin persisted through a busy couple weeks of local news to get our story in the traditional press. Although I won’t be holding the print version in my hands for several more hours, Morin’s article on Bloomington Startup Weekend—”Group to start new company in one weekend“—appears on the front page of the January 31, 2008 edition of the paper:

The chance to discover and market the next big business is about brainstorming, negotiating and developing a concept with the other participants.

That’s right. In the era of speed dating and power networking, there’s now the swift startup.

People can create and invest in a new enterprise in the space between happy hour Friday evening to when the alarm clock rings Monday morning and ushers in another day, another week of jobs and classes.

Source: Herald-Times

In addition to me praising the community-building and promotional aspect of the weekend, City councilman Brad Wisler is quoted from a council meeting, saying “We really want to show that Bloomington is the kind of place that supports innovation.”

There is a nice sidebar to the piece, as well, containing details on what Startup Weekend is all about.

Unfortunately, the local paper is only available online to subscribers.

We’ll begin profiling our event sponsors later tonight, beginning with Mallor Clendening Grodner & Bohrer LLP, a local Bloomington law firm specializing in estate planning and contract disputes. In the meantime, I wanted to post a note of thanks to Travis Brown for being the point man for the money flow.

Travis isn’t alone. Our organizing committee has grown to include about a dozen people:

• John Hill, Technology Directory
• Christian Briggs, Evangelist
• Katrina Panovich and Katie O’Donnell, Food Czars
• David Roedl, Sustainability Czar
• Jason de Runa, Hospitality Guy
• Nina Perry, Childcare Coordinator
• Lorraine Ball, PR
• Kevin Makice, Marketing and Materials Directory [added by John]

That doesn’t include the many more supporters in the region who have spread the word, paved the way, pulled the trigger, got the buy-in, and wrote the story about Bloomington Startup Weekend. We’re in for a great few days, thanks to all of the work everyone has put into this project.

More info about our sponsorship campaign is available at the main Startup Weekend site.