This is one of the best ideas I have seen all month, taking startup weekend directly to Haiti to help and provide support for budding programmers and entrepreneurs in the earthquake stricken country. If anything will add a bit of hope to that country, startup weekend is one of our best American assets we could send down there to help them out.
Startup Weekend run by Clint Nelsen and Marc Nagler are two of the most impressive people in the Seattle Startup Scene and are a formidable powerhouse of energy and enthusiasm for just about any kind of startup out there. Techflash and their own blog entry on this indicate that they want to work with an international relief agency to get to the right people at the right time. While some are going to question the timing when services have not been restored, it is worth noting that adding an entrepreneurial spin to Haiti right now might be the best time in the world.
With a lack of services, startup weekend provides an opportunity to meet the right people at the right time to start a company. It is not just necessarily focused on high technology either even if there is a direct association with Startup Weekend and technology startups. The lessons pulled from startup weekend will work in many non-technology style companies.
The key to startup weekend is not high tech, it is meeting the right people to bring an idea together and get it started. With so much of Haiti not functioning, the smartest thing that Startup Weekend could do is something like this – but focus on meeting basic needs, like a new construction company, a new water service, a new hospital, a new clinic, any new basic service would work here. By empowering people Startup Weekend shows off that connections matter and brining the right ideas to the right people at the right time is the core of Startup Weekend.
If Startup Weekend goes – I want to go along with because the far reaching effect and influence will go far beyond a high tech startup; rather we can connect the right ideas to the right people to help Haiti recover better.
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- Startup Weekend to Host Contest in Haiti (readwriteweb.com)
- Could a Start-Up Competition Help Haiti? (boss.blogs.nytimes.com)
- Startup Weekend Contest Winner: InstantLoop (twilio.com)
- Startup Weekend London (blogs.sun.com)
(Cross-posted @ TechWag )
