StartupCamp#2 format

Yo.

Following up on http://groups.google.com/group/BarCampWaterloo/... ...

• it has to be a technology that can be demoed
• you have some (possibly very limited) thoughts about business directions
• you are thinking about turning it into a business
• OR you have a small business and are thinking about going big
• you are open to heckling and constructive criticism

• About 15 minutes?

• Maybe 1 minute each?
• No laptops/slides – just tell us what you want to talk about.
• Edit: Maybe allow announcement here

• The audience thinks about who they’d like to hear from.
• It’s an approval voting system.
• You have one vote for each possible presentation, either check it or don’t
• Edit: mark your vote(s) as a checkmark on the whiteboard

• Whoever has the most checks goes first
• Then the next most, and so on, until we stop.

• 5 minutes to present?
• Ask us questions – what do you want to know from us? Many of us know things about starting up companies.
• We will heckle you (constructively)
• 10 minutes of discussion?
• If the audience really wants to, we can go over time? By how long?

• None of these?

—simon

This looks good. Realistically we may want to say 2 min for your mini preview and cap it at 30 min for discussion… if there are some keen people they can get a room.

That’s a good idea (get a room) ... I wonder though that if we tell people “2 minutes” they’ll treat it as longer, after all the last StartupCamp we only gave people officially 3 minutes to present I think. I would almost say tell them 30 seconds :-) (which is after all the length of an elevator pitch).

Also I’m getting a big ass timer. I want to get one like the one I saw at TorCamp DemoCamp a year ago or so. Anyway, I found this: http://wintergreen.ca/catalogues/index.php?cata…

I just wasted like an hour searching for that

Everything looks good, except for some mild concern I have about extending the 15 minutes.

The Demo and Startup Camps are all about revealing the maximum number of opportunities through lightweight, rapid-fire, engaging presentations. Allowing times to slide undermines what I think is a very effective format. It also subjugates the subsequent presenters, and the disinterested audience members, to the popular will.

If we think 15 minutes isn’t going to be enough, then I think we should allocate 20 minutes each, but not more.

Overall, I’m happy with what you’ve described. This is only our second try, so we can tune the model even more in the future.

By the way, a big-ass timer will help everybody, and especially the presenters. It is very easy to lose track of time while on stage.

OK I ordered the timer today, it was $30 so the sponsors can pay for that. It’s supposed to beep when it runs out of time and have a big red & white dials.

I guess I see what you mean about extending the time. I think also that it would be a good idea not to do that. As for 15 vs. 20 minutes, I don’t know… maybe 20? Last time did seem a bit rushed to me, although I’m biased, because I was the one who had to cut people off.

I’ll make clearly marked edits to the original post.

ok, so, now that I’ve read this a bunch of times I understand the idea of voting. although I can’t say I really like the idea, I’m willing to try it and see what happens. (It reminds me of those scenes where you’re the last picked on the baseball team)

In terms of timing. 60 seconds for the initial pitch no more. Everyone runs through their 60s then all vote and then we take the votes as the order of presenters.
No more than 15 minutes per full pitch/review by the audience (not 20 that’s too long).
I’ll do another post on lessons learned from Montreal (MT) startupcamp that we might be able to apply.

In terms of the requirement of having something to demo, ok, but what about service oriented companies. are we excluding them?

Yeah, I’d love to hear your thoughts about the Montreal camp.

I think with the voting, because it happens “offline” it should reduce the embarrassment factor hopefully to zero. For demos, what do you mean about service oriented companies, who wouldn’t have something to show?

Let’s not call them pitches … I don’t want this to be like a recruiting/money raising thing, but more like a discussion and learning opportunity (for the presenters and everyone who’s seeing what they are asking and what they get back).

—simon