Tairāwhiti Startup Weekend is back next month and impact house Tāiki e! is looking forward to hosting new budding entrepreneurs.
Now in its fifth year, the weekend-long event helps participants learn how to shape solutions into business models, build products and launch start-ups.
Startup Weekend Tairāwhiti organising team member Cherish Wilkinson says
this year’s theme is “Imagine If”.
“We want to inspire our community to use their imagination and creativity to help solve existing problems and challenges.”
Like previous editions, budding entrepreneurs will be given a minute to pitch and sell their idea to the rest of the participants in the hope of recruiting them. After teams are formed, they will develop a plan of action for the weekend.
Each team will have the opportunity to go around the city and talk with the community and businesses to see if they are interested in the idea.
Last year, the event saw 33 people sign up and pitch their business ideas, but only about a dozen ideas were selected to be developed and worked on over the weekend.
Ms Wilkinson says the main objective of the entrepreneurial initiative is to help people nurture their personal and professional development.
“You also get the opportunity to build up your team-building skills and learn from the valuable feedback given by our volunteering mentors and judges.
“Like previous years, we will have a mix of local and non-local judges oversee the event. They bring their expertise from a whole range of areas, from finance to technology.”
Some of the organisations supporting the initiative include Dev Academy, investment banking firm Jarden, and Todd Foundation.
This year’s Startup Weekend will look to shake things up with a few changes, Ms Wilkinson says.
For starters, there will be a prize for everybody and no single team will be crowned as the winner.
After the conclusion of the event, all the teams will be given an equal opportunity to seek counsel with Tāiki e!
“We will look at their business idea, and discuss their objectives and if they are serious to go ahead with their business plans.
“After that, we will help by connecting them to suitable mentors who will give them the necessary push for their ideas to come to life.
“While they build up their startups, we will monitor their progress and after 12 months sit down with them for a business update.”
For those who want to opt out or not participate in the Startup Weekend, Ms Wilkinson says Tāiki e! plans to organise a parallel business workshop during the event.
“We’ll have another workshop teaching people about different technological tools, financial and business models, so that your future business propositions look and sound appealing and attract potential partners or investors.”
Ms Wilkinson says Tāiki e! did have second thoughts about holding the event, after Tairāwhiti got a battering from recent weather events.
“But we realised that it was actually a good opportunity for us to uplift the community by inspiring them to perhaps come up with long-term, localised solutions that help resiliency.”
■ Startup Weekend Tairāwhiti is on April 21-23 at Campion College. For tickets visit https://events.humanitix.com/startup-weekend-tairawhiti-2023