Get ready for Startup Weekend Jakarta

Jakarta is going to have its first Startup Weekend event this month. The 54-hour marathon ideas, brainstorming, and networking event will be held at IDS at Epicentrum Walk in Kuningan, South Jakarta from May 20 - 22.

Supported by the Kauffman Foundation, which is the largest foundation in the world devoted to entrepreneurship, Startup Weekend aims to discover and connect developers, designers, marketers, and business people to build products and launch startups over one weekend. According to the website, half of the participants have technical backgrounds while the other half tend to be business people.

On the Friday, participants are expected to present their ideas in 60 seconds through open mic pitches in front of everyone. The best ideas get selected for further refinement and development by the teams that are formed following the pitching session.

Over the next two days, teams will design, formulate, and develop business plans as they streamline and finalize their vision for their products, assisted by mentors. By the end of the event, teams will demo prototypes of their products in front of judges who will provide valuable feedback, questions, and responses.

Mentors for Startup Weekend Jakarta will be Dhakasinamoorthy "Dash" Balakrishnan who's been involved in Startup Weekend events across Southeast Asia as well as winners and finalists from the International Young Creative Entrepreneur Awards. The event is being facilitated by Joey Pomerenke who is the Global Operations Manager for Startup Weekend from the Kauffman Foundation.

On the same weekend there will also be Startup Weekend events in seven other cities which include Corvallis and Miami in the United States, Bordeaux in France, Coimbra in Portugal, Tokyo in Japan, Kazan in Russia, and Regueb in Tunisia.

Startup Weekend has been held more than 300 times around the world since 2009 and produced more than 500 startups, gathering 27 thousand entrepreneurs in total.

The Jakarta event is organized by the Indonesian Technopreneur Community and the Ciputra University Entrepreneurship Center and supported by International Design School as well as the British Council. You can read more about Startup Weekend on this page. Those interested to participate or attend the Jakarta event on May 20-22 can email Stevanus Billy or Nico Budianto.