Chapel Hill Startup Weekend

Photo via mtyndal

We’re here at the first evening of Startup Weekend Chapel Hill. So far there are a ton of ideas flying around. Here are the ones that this group of 30+ people narrowed down.

• GreenAds
• Kwopr, Find co-op,co-working space near you
• Open response
• Food Dish Matchup
• Move my dirt

One of the most significant things uttered tonight is that not all sites used by techies are that widely successful. (Shock! WTF! Everyone doesn’t use Digg?) Case in point. Andrew asked how many people here use Flickr. Almost everyone’s hands went up. Then he asked how many people use Photobucket. No one raised their hands. Recently a Flickr employee and a Photobucket employee where on a panel. (sounds like a bar joke right?) Flickr guy said they had 5,000 daily users. Photobucket said they had 45,000 daily users. Woah!

The group just narrowed down those five to three.

• Kwopr, Find co-op,co-working space near you
• Open response
• Food Dish Matchup

It is about to start, 6pm is when the doors open to meet!

There is a flurry of activity preparing for the event tonight.  If you are coming or know someone in the area who should attend please remind them that tickets are still available (and free)!

I look forward to meeting everyone tonight!

While taking care of some last minute sustenance preparations for our weekend, I couldn’t help but realize all the waste that we’ll be producing and figured I might as well give a shout out to all you checking this blog to please bring your own travel mug and water bottle for beverages.

In my experience, there are a number of reasons why this is a good idea aside from producing less waste:

1. One, the owners of 50 odd red identical plastic cups (even with names written on them) tend to get mixed up . . . and so too would our lovely germs! I’m sure we’ll all be one big happy family by the end of the weekend, but let’s keep the germ swappage at a minimum.
2. Two, have any of you ever been to an event where a near-coffee-spill-on-Macbook didn’t happen? I haven’t. Even the best disposable coffee cups with tops won’t withstand an oblivious backhand. Let’s protect eachother’s hardware from accidental dousing as best we can.

Also, if you have a spare cooler you could share over the weekend, it would be much appreciated.  Just let one of the organizers know on Friday.

On the subject of food, we’ll be kicking off with Amante’s pizza and Carolina Brewery beer on Friday, Breugger’s bagels and coffee on both mornings, the infamous Carrburritos for lunch on Saturday and Foster’s sandwiches on Sunday. Dinner is still TBD, but we’ll likely be going out somewhere within walking distance . . . Weaver Street Market is the likely locale. All in all, it will be a nice selection of some great Chapel Hill fare.

Get ready folks. It’s gonna be a great weekend!

Over on the wiki we have a bunch of valuable information. Let me share some of it here with you.

Where: Blogads, 103 Lloyd St., Carrboro, NC, Google Map

Keep in mind the office is off of the street a bit. From East Main Street you can see the Blogads office. Its an old brick building with a blue band and a coffee cup painted on it. (Check out the pin on the Google Map.) Please DO NOT park in the the Cats Cradle or Carr Mill Mall lots. They like to tow. There is a FREE public parking lot for more space at the corner of East Main Street and Roberson Street (across from the Armadillo Restaurant)

1. From I-40 West take Exit 273A towards Chapel Hill
2. Merge onto NC Route 54 aka Raleigh Road to the UNC campus (changes to South Road)
3. Turn Right onto South Columbia Street/NC-86 N
4. Turn left at the light onto West Franklin Street
5. Continue onto East Main Street (You are now in Carrboro!)
6. Take a right at the light onto Lloyd Street
7. Take your second left onto a small gravel road. (Medium sized sign that says Blogads and Newfangled.)
8. The brick building in front of you is the offices of Blog Ads. They are on the second floor.

Only a few short days away, make sure to stop by the Idea Forum and drop off and idea of a company you have always wanted to see built!

Anyone else excited?

Thanks to Corey Reece for setting up the PB Wiki for us for SW Chapel Hill. We’ll use the wiki for some of the pre-organization of the event. If you’d like to help out, please join in. Looks like we’re pretty much ready to go!

Huge thanks to New Media Campaigns for offering use of their space for the weekend. We’ve outgrown it already! We’re going to be holding SW Chapel Hill at the Blogads offices, located spitting distance from Weaver Street Market. Thanks to Justin Abbot for offering the space. Details to follow, but for now, please sign up and let folks know that it’s happening in about a week’s time. Photos coming soon…

And counting!  Get on that gravy train & ride, ride, ride.

Startup Weekend in West Lafeyette (home of Purdue U) is rocking out this weekend.  They created ScrollTalk, which is some sort of contextual, taggable chat resource (I bet Andrew can explain that a bit more succinctly).  Follow along to get an idea of how SW Chapel Hill will go…

West Lafeyette had a Delta launch this morning, which is a first in Startup Weekend history.  They’ve been the fastest and seemingly most organized of the weekends to date.  Awesome work, West Lafeyette!

Why is Chapel Hill going to rock out Startup Weekend?

1. We’ve got some powerhouse colleges (Duke, NC State & UNC) all within a 20-mile radius of the Startup Weekend location.

2. We’re one of Wired’s Top Ten Tech Towns.

The jocks here may get worked up about college hoops, but the tech set is passionate about Linux distros and Mac-PC holy wars. North Carolina’s Triangle is ground zero for Red Hat, SAS Institute, and an IBM center.

3. UNC-Chapel Hill is home to the incredible SILS (School of Information & Library Science) programs where you can get your geek on all the way up to PhD status.

4. Red Hat is in (neighboring) Raleigh. Lulu is on its way to Chapel Hill. Cat’s Cradle is a fixture. I mean, what more could you possibly ask for? Good beer, great tech, all in one down home place.

5. During breaks you’ll be able to walk to: Amazing Mediterranean, Delicious Mexican, Homestyle Southern, Fresh Organic, Pub Food & more!! Unless you want to work through meals, and that’s perfectly ok, too!

We look forward to showing locals & out-of-towners alike some Southern Hospitality, served w/a side of tech. Book now if you haven’t already!