Comments on: StartupWeekend in Montréal?

By: Heri

Heri — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 02:25:54 +0000

sylvain and francis: it’s probably better then to watch the Toronto experiment and see how they are doing this. I also thought today that there might not be enough people to make an event.

until then lets do democamps, barcamps, breakfasts, web dev book clubs, and mashpits (although I dont see any upcoming mashpits in montreal?)

By: Sylvain Carle

Sylvain Carle — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 22:56:19 +0000

Or how about different team on the same project, with something like three “rounds” where everyone presents where they are after each one? A friendly competition?

But I still think that the idea behind mashpits/beercamps are better, work on an existing project that could use a hand (or several projects if you have that many participants.

See http://mashpit.pbwiki.com/MashPitMontreal and http://www.afroginthevalley.com/2007/03/01/mashpit-montreal-now.html for more info…

By: Francis Wu

Francis Wu — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 03:00:27 +0000

Heri, but to answer your question, I think MTL can use an event like this, but all in due time — IMHO, there’s probably more we can learn from other events first.

By: Francis Wu

Francis Wu — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 02:57:11 +0000

Heri, I think that’s a brilliant idea — several projects instead of just one. Might be a win-win solution to resolve a number of issues, especially the whole “too many cooks” scenario. So if anyone’s organizing one, be it in MTL or elsewhere, bear that in mind :P!

By: Heri

Heri — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 23:19:53 +0000

Francis Wu: if you look at the objectives (create a working startup in 1 weekend), the Boulder event failed. The group was too big, some people became team leaders even though there were more experimented people in the room, Java was chosen as the technology, but there was no clear reason why.

so I think your comment nails where the problem is. I asked the question because the initiative is growing in many cities, much alike barcamps and democamps and I thought maybe Montréal is missing something.

if there is to be an event like this, i think there should be multiple teams, each having a project. make it fun, make them compete, don’t set expectations too high, and it should be much more interesting.

By: Francis Wu

Francis Wu — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 20:04:34 +0000

I’d personally like to see something like that in MTL and even contribute to such an event However, the success of such an event depends largely on what we can learn from the Colorado experiment.

One thing David Crow doesn’t really mention in his last post was the logistics of managing 70 people. Is it just me, or is 70 people simply asking for trouble? To put things in perspective, Cork’d was created from A to Z by only two guys.

I reckon that for a Startup Weekend to be succesful, the team must be smaller — I know, cherry-picking a team may defeat the whole “community” thing — and someone has to manage the project. Otherwise, you’ll likely end up with something more akin to a geeky love-in instead of serious project.

Hope that wasn’t too ranty :P.

By: Marc Chriqui

Marc Chriqui — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 18:38:47 +0000

Most things with the words “startup” and “Montreal” are worth it.

By: David Crow

David Crow — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 12:45:05 +0000

Hi Heri,

Not hosted by me, hosted by another set of Toronto folks at the Innovation Toronto facility.