You may remember the story hitting Cinplify and a few local blogs in March.
I thought it sounded like a pretty neat idea and I voted on the startupweekend.com/cityvote page.
A few weeks after voting I received an email from Ray Angel of StartupWeekend.com claiming that preparations were beginning for an even in Cincinnati:
I've begun planning for the Columbus weekend and we hope to be announcing it on the Startup Weekend website soon.
I'd like to be able to announce the Cincy Startup Weekend around the same time if at all possible and I need to narrow down the weekend that works best for the majority of people.
A visit to the site showed that a Columbus event had been announced, but as far as I could tell, there wasn't any announcement about Cincinnati.
Anyway, I didn't think much about it.
As usual, once a I'm exposed to a meme like this, I start noticing it where I might not have earlier. It didn't take long before I was actively digging around for information about this whole operation.
The group has been mentioned a few times on TechCrunch.com, fairly amicably, but the real juice is on uk.techcrunch.com where they did a longish post about the history of Startup Weekend so far and the apparently dramatic Andrew Hyde, Startup Weekend's founder. From that article we learn that a few cities have had uneasy relationships with Hyde and to varying degrees have divorced their "startup weekends" from his company. Some have complained about his style of management and professionalism.
More recently, a spat has occurred between Hyde and an Andrew Paradies. Paradies, is a co-founder of another web-startup based out of Cincinnati called photrade.com. Hyde accused Paradies of creating an inferior clone of Startup Weekend and also dissed him for using a Creative Commons licensed photo improperly on the new company's site InOneWeekend.org.
I turns out that Paradies is involved with InOneWeekend.org, but isn't really a founder per se, and based on the back and forth it appears he and Hyde have made up. Still I don't think Startup Weekend and In One Weekend have much love for each other at this point.
Anyway, now it appears InOneWeekend.org is planning ( obviously ) an event in Cincinnati in July as their first weekend. However, they have no details on the site other than the dates.
One wonders if Hyde's SW is still going to come to town, or if they decided to skip us and let IOW take the reins. It's not clear to me whether they've made up their minds about coming since there hasn't been a post on the actual site yet. Columbus and Cincinnati both still appear on the voting page. The decision making process is not very transparent.
I guess my initial interest, if not enthusiasm, for the idea has been somewhat dampened.
I'll still try to attend one or both of the events if they actually occur, but now it'll be more out of morbid curiosity than an entrepreneurial attitude. I know the videos I've seen so far make it look like a pretty unique experience.
Boulder Startup Weekend 2 - Day 2 from Danny Holland on Vimeo.
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7 comments:
Very interesting. I was also wondering what happened.
I was asked to help setup local facilities fo SW and then never heard from anyone again.
I'm a bit skeptical of IOW based on my impression of their website and readiness to help us get a startup going. Maybe it's just a startup glitch. Hmmm.
Yeah, I received an email from them and volunteered to help out as well, but haven't heard back since.
It was almost exactly the same time the IOW flap occurred. I think IOW ruffled their feathers a bit, and now they're dragging their feet. I sincerely hope both events still happen, though.
Considering participating in the Columbus weekend.
Hello, there, concerned weekenders!
Elizabeth from InOneWeekend here. We are indeed hosting a weekend in Cincinnati July 11-13. Please consider this post a personal invitation to join!
Our IOW group admires the SW format so much, we decided to create one here in Cincinnati… with a few twists... ;) Why wait for the city vote? And why not put it on steroids?
Hyde was miffed when he found out about our IOW weekend pre-launch. I don’t blame him – SW is his baby. I was on vacation at the time, so I missed the buzz, but the important thing of note here is that our goal is not to host a one-off SW. I live in Cincinnati and this city needs events and organizations like IOW right now – something that lasts beyond the weekend.
He hasn't returned my phone call, but I think by now Hyde has probably realized that ANY event (whether like SW or not) that inspires innovation and entrepreneurship is a worthwhile endeavor. In fact, we’re all working towards the same goal: more great start-ups.
We're putting our website and registration up Sunday night, so definitely check back on next week to register! www.inoneweekend.org
I look forward to seeing you all at a (literally) rocking event!
Cheers,
Elizabeth
Elizabeth, thanks so much for commenting!
I think it's a pretty cool idea and I'm looking forward to coming.
I respect the speed with which IOW is setting things up. If that says anything for the program, I guess I should get signed up too.
Likewise, thanks for commenting Elizabeth.
FYI, the Startup Weekend folks have spun off Startup Drinks.
InOneWeekend's registration is currently full, but there is a waiting list on inoneweekend.org. The lecture by Roy Gilbert is on Friday, July 11th at 2:30pm in the Tangeman University Center at the University of Cincinnati. This lecture is free and open to the public.
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