The Event has Started!
6pm: ZOMG, there are 232 people registered. That is about twice as many as the SW Organizer’s Guide recommends. It is going to be a madhouse.
7pm: Over 200 people have actually turned up here at Blk71, a collaborative workspace dedicated to the high-tech start-up community in Singapore, co-hosted by MDA, NUS Enterprise, and SingTel Innov8. It is a madhouse. The room is too small, and for this I apologize.
It is a pleasant surprise that the air cons are more than equal to the challenge. Another surprise were the Angry Bird toys sponsored by SingTel Idea Factory – they were hot items!
7:30pm: Meng is your host tonight. Warming up the crowd with a couple of fun fake pitches.
CloudDigger.com mashes up dating sites with Mint.com using their API to solve the libido problems of bankers and the bankruptcy problems of very selective daters.
Angry Bladder is a mobile game that teaches bladder control using gamification methods to both young and old! You can upload your bladder control achievements to the cloud.
Swingapore uses Kinect to gamify sex, so that the best couples get to upload their performance to the cloud and get scores based on the proprietary automated gesture recognition interface. This encourages Singaporeans to procreate and will be eligible for SDU funding. Leaderboards encourage high performers to switch partners, form new teams, and advance in the rankings.
Pitches are Underway
Death by pitching, someone said. Now everybody knows how painful it is to be a VC: sitting through pitch after pitch after pitch for hours on end.
There are way too many pitches, but everybody deserves to be heard. Many do really well for 60 seconds. Some are hilarious.
SingTel Idea Factory, a sponsor of the SingTel Startup Weekend Singapore, talks about the coming wave of hyperlocal apps.
The idea sheets are posted on the walls for a round of voting followed by a round of pitching followed by team formation.
The funniest idea comes with the subtitle: “the best things in life are shaved.” I think maybe that’s supposed to be “shared”, but hey, why not?
The Teams are Formed
Developers, developers, developers, developers – where are you?
The ratio is actually pretty good this time. Some unfortunate “Excel monkeys” are becoming developers and designers: needs must, when the devil drives. You and the clownfish.
Designers are the rarest breed tonight. UX designers, UI designers, HTML and CSS ninjas. Without you guys around, we’re just going to organize a raiding party to pillage oswd.org.
Some teams have ten people. Some teams have two. And there are a number of solo artists gunning away at a solitary vision. My way or the highway – it worked for Steve Jobs, why shouldn’t it work for you?