Comments(0) Seattle Startup Weekend 2 will be held February 6-8, 2009 at the Google offices in Fremont (651 North 34th St).
Please head to the new Seattle Startup Weekend blog to buy tickets and keep up with the latest event news.
Look forward to seeing you there!
Comments(0) At first blush, it might not seem like snow has that much to do with a product launch, but in the case of skillbit(tm), I was paying very close attention to the weather the entire weekend. Thankfully, the snow held off until today. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.
Even people local to Seattle don’t always fully understand the odd dynamic we have with winter weather here, so I’m going to take the liberty of going all weather geek on you all (hey, Andrew hasn’t cut off my blogging access yet, so why not?) and give you a quick rundown.
First, it helps to understand that to get snow around here usually requires two distinct weather events to end up at the same place, at the same time. This hardly ever happens. Quite regularly, we go through an entire winter without getting both the cold from Canada (or more rarely - from the Alaskan gulf) at precisely the same time as we’re also getting moisture from the southwest. It’s tough for us to simply get cold air that also happens to contain the moisture needed for snow.
So maybe this happens once a year. Once in a while, we get two snow events in a single winter. More than that is practically unheard of.
On top of that, because of how we usually get snow, the snow around here usually either sublimates in the extra cold, dry air that sticks around afterward if it was moisture hit by cold… or gets washed away in a warm rain if the weather events came in reverse order. In either case, it’s all gone in a day or two, much to the disappointment of all the kids.
From there, it’s a rather predictable cascading effect. Now - if you were a city official trying to set spending budgets, would you bother with much in the way of snow removal or sanding equipment? No, you would not. So the roads stay slick.
And of course, drivers get hardly any practice driving around in snow, slush, and ice around here. But the real killer is all the hills. Put all three factors together with the understanding that if you just wait 24 hours, it’ll all be gone, of course everyone stays home. And those who don’t almost always have a problem, even if it’s because someone else didn’t know how to stop on the slick roads.
As tempting as the main roads look, all clear because they’re well traveled and well tended to by the snow equipment, the side streets are the biggest issue. Another kind of a “last mile” problem.
And if you’ve gotten this far and are still wondering what this has to do with Startup Weekend and skillbit, it’s this…
First, if the snow had hit over the weekend as had been originally predicted, it could have made it very problematic for people to get to the Adobe offices. In fact, I left the house a bit more rushed than I’d anticipated because I saw some snow start to fall and couldn’t be sure just how bad it would get. As it happened, traveling to and from Fremont remained easy all weekend - even for those of us who celebrated late into the evening Sunday night. For this we are grateful.
Secondly, with all the havoc that snow can wreak in Western Washington and the rarity of such events, anyone hoping for media coverage (as we were) really wants to avoid trying to get anyone’s attention in the face of a healthy snow event.
The media typically gets all in a frenzy over snow and so we were very glad to not be competing with snow yesterday to get airtime. And it’s a good thing too, because sure enough, the airwaves are filled with “all snow all the time” today. It looks like we may have had our few minutes of fame for now.
This is fine - it gives us a moment to catch our breath. Bash some of the more obvious bugs that are of course still evident this early in the launch. Maybe get some more sleep. And of course start figuring out the next steps for our new product and the new community that created it this past weekend.
There’s a lot of all of this happening today amongst the new skillbit family, and a nice quiet snow day is a perfect way to ease back into the real world. For all of you out on the roads, be careful out there.
Comments(1) Yes, Startup Weekend Seattle really is tomorrow!
Plan on showing up to Adobe around 6pm, though if traffic becomes an issue, please don’t sweat it. Andrew says it’ll be fine. We’ll just make you run laps or sing or something. Just kidding. About the laps anyway.
If you’re an official attendee, you should have gotten an email from Andrew about schedules, directions, etc. If you’ve misplaced it, here are the most relevant details:
1) Location and Hours: Adobe Offices at 801 N. 34th Street, Seattle, WA 98103. Times: Friday at 6pm -10ish Saturday 9am-midnight and Sunday 9am til 9pm. Parking might be an issue (construction is happening near the office)
2) What to bring: open mind, elevator pitch for a company you want to help cofound, laptop, favorite snack, energy to start this off!
3) Food: We have some fantastic sponsors, including Adobe, nPost, Sun, Lockergnome, University of Washington’s Technology Management MBA, Jott, Madrona Venture Group, Washington’s Technology Association and others that will be providing meals and snacks throughout the weekend. If your fine company would like to get in the sponsorship mode we have one more meal that needs some help.
4) Bring your thank you notes addressed to Nathan Kaiser, Hans Omli, Casey Margell, Kimm Viebrock and Ryan Stewart for their hard work planning and bringing SW to Seattle. They have done an amazing job!
5) Anything you think a startup needs to have. Miscellaneous items include extension chords, wireless routers, server farms, etc.
6) Perhaps a little cash to buy a CD from Scott Andrew www.scottandrew.com who has agreed to come play a short acoustic set for the group.
Personally, I plan on putting my folding table in the car just in case we need it - and maybe a few chairs too - after all, we’ve got more than 100 folks signed up for this event! I’ll also be bringing a label maker so people can keep track of their stuff.
See you all there!
Kimm
Comments(0) Wow - Seattle booked up fast! Right away we set records for how quickly people signed up. And then the sign-up requests just kept rolling in.And now we’re capped out. Andrew will have to confirm - I’m not aware of any of the other cities hitting the limit before.Fortunately, sponsors are signing up to cover some of the meals, so people won’t have to be entirely responsible for feeding themselves. Jott is picking up the tab for Saturday breakfast, Madrona Venture Group will be underwriting lunch on Saturday, Lockergnome will be covering Saturday dinner, nPost is bringing breakfast on Sunday, and UW’s Technology Management MBA program will provide lunch on Sunday. Thanks guys! There will be a lot of hungry geeks thankful for the handout.If you know of anyone interested in sponsoring any aspect of the weekend (use your imagination or feel free to ask what’s needed), be sure to contact us right away as time is definitely drawing short - as are the opportunities!
Comments(0) Here is the original post from the main Startup Weekend site:
You ready?
Startup Weekend is proud to announce that the Seattle Startup Weekend will be held January 25-27 2008. The first Startup Weekend of the new year will be held at the amazing Adobe offices in Fremont. This will be the 14th Startup Weekend to take place across the globe.
Please blog, twitter, IM and tell your friends about the weekend (and feel free to use this logo and link to this post).
So, you want to get involved? A great team of 8 organizers have been hard at work making sure the event will be a memorable Startup Weekend.
So what can you do?
Tickets for Startup Weekend Seattle will be sold here for $20. Event Sold Out! This is really a RSVP cost, and you will receive your fair share of food, swag and memories (all of the money from this will be used for local costs of running the event).
There are 7 main areas of expertise that you can sign up for:
Make sure to get tickets early, it will most likely sell out fast.
Leave your questions in the comments!
**UPDATE ** Sold Out for now
Comments(0) Mark your calendars for Startup Weekend Seattle for January 25-27th 2008!