What the heck is a StartupCamp?

Want to share the joy of starting up? StartupCampWaterloo is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos, and interaction from attendees.

Here's our unique format: after a main speaker breaks the ice and we have short demos and Q&As from people in our startup community. The StartupDemo gives you a chance to get your idea out there and get feedback so you can strengthen your idea.

Should you give a demo? If you're thinking of starting a company, just started up, or heavily involved, the answer may well be yes! The critical point is: do you have a question that you think the community can answer? We're not looking for pitches, we're looking for dialogue — you come show us what you're doing, ask a question (like, is this any good, or how do I commercialize this, or is my commercialization scheme any good, or something more specific) and we'll harangue and heckle you to everyone's benefit. The audience is usually a mix of technology and business types so you'll get all perspectives, and the learning will go both ways.

Here's the order of ceremonies:

1. Chatter and put your proposal on the white board at the front of the room.
2. Introduction and summary of the ground rules.
3. Guest speaker, typically a founder/entrepreneur who talks about their experience starting a company.
4. Now anyone who put their name on the whiteboard, comes up and takes 30 seconds to pitch their demo. What is your idea, what is your question, what is your discussion topic? Practise your "elevator pitch".
5. Food, socializing & voting on the white board.
6. First presentation (most votes on the whiteboard):
   1. Five minutes for your demo. Who are you? What is your request to the audience (market validation, business model, marketing...)? We will cut you off if you go over :-)
   2. Five minutes for discussion, extendable by the audience if they want.
7. Second presentation, etc... with a snack/discussion break in there somewhere, until we run out of time.

Drop your presentation topic on the wiki: http://barcamp.org/StartupCampWaterloo