Birmingham://STARTUP project -- 19SEP07 slide deck regarding our own variation of the startup weekend effort

2. Innovation Depot… our area’s premier incubator, located in downtown Birmingham

3. We’re in Birmingham, the city that exists because of entrepreneurs who saw the 3 ingredients in the ground to create an entire industry and a brand new city. Now, over 100 years later we want to spark new batch of new companies here in Birmingham… ones that make use of the latest technologies and the entrepreneurs that make Birmingham a TOP THREE mid-sized city for entrepreneurism according to Entrepreneur magazine (2 years running).

4. New companies will be created to join other successful tech companies in Birmingham… this is a VERY small sampling of the 500+ tech companies in the region SUNGARD EXP

5. The tech community is more than “companies”, it’s people. TechBirmingham’s TechMixers bring out 600+ users each event.

6. Some of these people got together and organized our first BarCamp a full year ahead of Atlanta’s… in fact, 2 guys drove over from Atlanta to participate!

7. And now, this same vibrant technology community is coming together and applying the concept of “barn raising” to starting up a web-based internet company

8. We’ll do the heavy lifting as a community… and turn the company over to the Founders on Monday morning.

9. The “Birmingham Model” of the StartupWeekend concept, started in Boulder Colorado this past June. In the Birmingham model, three teams are selected to present on Sunday evening of the “Business Dev” weekend. All developers watch a webcast of the presentations and then vote on which project to implement the following weekend... majority wins. The winning business team uses the week to further tweak their product spec in time for the Implementation Weekend.

10. “ Business Dev” weekend

11. We’ll invite speakers who will cover core subjects necessary to the success of the entrepreneur teams

12. Specific useful topics will be covered, including staffing, legal, marketing, etc.

13. Development teams will solve their own business problems after being challenged by what they’ve learned

14. Three companies will be chosen to present on Sunday evening

15. “ Implementation” weekend

16. A chance to work alongside the best of the best here in Birmingham

17. Teams will work together to create the software for the new company

18. Even if you’re not on-site during the weekend, we’ll find ways to share what’s going on

19. W. I. I. F. M. ???

20. We’ll feed you… (probably NOT ribs, though)

21. You’ll get a t-shirt, which your child might quickly steal for a night shirt

22. Bloggers will be tracking the goings-on of the weekend

23. You might even show up on television in a documentary planned to track progress through the effort You?!

24. But, ultimately is about having been one of a chosen few to have BUILT THE BARN

25. You’ll be able to point at the *barn* (company) and say “I helped build that”

26. Let’s Get Busy!

27. First… get yourself to www.BirminghamStartup.com – after looking around, click on the “Join This Wiki” button and become a registered user.

28. AFTER registration, you will be able to add comments

29. Visit the Event Planning Roles and Startup Roles pages and add your name in the category in which you are most interested

30. Then, contribute by adding your comments… for example, this page is a discussion about what the LOGO of the project will be.