Startup Weekend San Diego Hosts Area Entrepreneurs For a Crash Course in Creating a Business

SAN DIEGO, CA – June 14, 2012. This month, San Diego host its fourth Startup Weekend, an event bringing together entrepreneurs, designers, developers and startup enthusiasts to participate in 54 hours of taking innovative business ideas from concept to launch.

Local CEOs, founders, and startup veterans will be on hand to provide expertise and give talks on their experiences in the fast-paced world of technology startups.

"This is going to be a great weekend for the startup community in San Diego," said Julian Bryant, one of the local volunteer organizers. "It's great to see the experienced guys donate their time and money to help the community grow locally."

On Friday night, attendees will take the open mic to pitch their ideas to the group in 60 seconds or less. After groups form, the rest of the weekend will be spent formulating the most popular ideas – typically web and mobile applications – with the help of mentors and seasoned startup entrepreneurs. By Sunday, teams will be ready to present their ideas in front of a panel of judges who will award prizes valued over $1,000 each, including co-working space and memberships in mentorship programs, all of which are targeted to help teams build their startups after the weekend.

"Our mission this weekend isn't limited to just creating local startups. We want to support local business as well," said volunteer organizer Leslie Fishlock. "Part of the learning experience at Startup Weekend is demonstrating practices that encourage growth and innovation right here at home."

Alongside members from the local tech and entrepreneur communities, Startup Weekend San Diego will welcome a new kind of participant to the local event: two students from King Chavez High School in downtown San Diego.

"One particularly exciting part of this weekend's event is that we are helping two young students with an interest in entrepreneurship get a valuable learning experience first-hand," said Bryant. "This is the first time we have welcomed high school students to Startup Weekend San Diego and we're very happy to have them at the event."

Around 80 participants are expected to partake over the weekend; additionally, there are limited tickets available to the public for viewing the presentations on Sunday night.

Although the focus is local for the San Diego attendees, Startup Weekend will also sanction events this weekend in Washington, D.C., Morocco, New Zealand, Norway, and Copenhagen.

Startup Weekend San Diego runs from Friday, June 15th at 5:30 PM to Sunday, June 17th at 9:00 PM at Co-Merge Workplace, 330 A. St., a co-working and office space in San Diego's financial district. For more information on this weekend's event, as well as tickets to participate, please visit http://sandiego.startupweekend.org

ABOUT STARTUP WEEKEND: Startup Weekend is a 501c(3)non-profit based in Seattle, Wash. Founded in 2007 in Boulder, Colo., by Andrew Hyde, the organization has been based out of Seattle since 2009 under the direction of Marc Nager. Supported by a grant from the Kauffman Foundation, Startup Weekend has held over 325 events around the globe, inspiring nearly 30,000 entrepreneurs to take an idea from concept to launch. For information about the San Diego organization, please visit http://sandiego.startupweekend.org or contact community organizer Jennifer Newell at 970-371-0417 or jen@sdtechscene.org.

ABOUT CO-MERGE WORKPLACE: Co-Merge Workplace is Downtown San Diego's state-of-the-art co-working, conference, and training center, offering a variety of services designed to foster a collaborative and entrepreneurial work environment. Co-Merge offers professional desk space and enterprise Wi-Fi, conference rooms for meetings of any size, plus event space for networking, training and seminars. Co-Merge provides all amenities on a flexible, hourly basis. Launched in the summer of 2011, Co-Merge is managed by Michael Kenny and Robert Conrad and is a proud member of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown San Diego Partnership, 6 Degrees San Diego and the San Diego Co-working Alliance. More information is available at www.co-merge.com.