Start-up Weekend, an initiative of Techstars, a company that provides a platform for persons with start-up ideas to take them to the next level, was organised in Madurai for the first time from Friday till Sunday.
M.S. Sivakumar, one of the organisers of the event in Madurai, said the idea involved continuous brainstorming sessions, interactions with experts from various fields for 54 hours from Friday evening till Sunday night. “There was space to discuss their idea with other teams, get inputs from experts, and bring it to a better shape,” he said.
The programme also provided a platform to network with people through which the start-up aspirants could even find funding for their ideas. Stating that anybody with start-up ideas in any field were allowed to participate in the event, G.V. Naveenraj, another organiser, said about 30 ideas were presented at the Start-up Weekend initiative in Madurai. Of these 12 ideas were allowed to pitch their ideas in front of a panel of judges.
The ideas varied from firewall solutions for computers and graphics designing tools to use of memes as an educational tool.
A student from Sethu Institute of Technology, who demonstrated the use of memes based on comedy scenes in Tamil films to explain concepts of Object-oriented Programming, was appreciated by the judges and other participants. However, the student did not elaborate on how the idea could be developed as a business model.
Mr. Sivakumar said though Startup Weekends were already organised in Chennai and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, this was the first time it was hosted in Madurai. “The response was good. We hope to organise more such events,” he said.
