First official Blitzweekend is coming to Montreal!

October 18th, 2007

2007 has been so far incredible for the Montreal technology scene. Ben Yoskovitz launched the monthly tech entrepreneurs breakfasts, Fred Ngo started Barcamps, with Simon Law taking the torch for Democamps. Standoutjobs, Akoha, Praized are all upcoming start-ups that are promised for a bright future. MontrealTechWatch was started, and is now a central place for technology entrepreneurship. Montrealstartup was then created as an angel fund, which now allows tech entrepreneurs to get early funding. TechnoMontreal was also launched this year to highlight and support the key role of technology for Montréal.

But we can do much better. Students from universities are still unseen, the image of Montréal as a startup city is unknown outside the local early adopters, with Quebecers going to other Canadian cities or to the US, there are still too much Montréalers and companies who are not aware of what is being done in the city, and most importantly, the level of local talent, skills and experience must be raised to an international level.

To make it happen, our answer is Blitzweekend, a brand-new, innovative, shifting event, for early 2008. Inspired from startupweekend, RailsRumble, mashpits, Ycombinator school, the event is a challenge to create a product in 48 hours, from design to deployment. It is made now possible by open source technologies, rapid development frameworks, and libraries freely available on the Internet.

The main goal of the event is to provide an opportunity for talented and bright people to build something in a relatively short time span. There are also secondary objectives:

create an environment for rapid learning, success, and failures,
provide an opportunity for entrepreneurs, developers and creatives to network and connect,
get a « playground » to see breakthrough technologies and innovative designs emerging,
raise the level of cutting-edge talent in Montréal,
raise the profile of Montréal as a startup platform,
bridge the gap between the French and English tech communities in Montréal.

If you want more information, I encourage you to visit the official site. http://blitzweekend.com

So… every event needs help and we’re looking for sponsors and volunteers. As far as sponsors, anything will help: food, drinks, winning prize and of course money as we’ll probably need to rent some space. If you think you can come up with sponsors, please let me know (denis@quebecvalley.com) and I will forward the information to the organizing committee.

Media coverage is also welcomed so I’d appreciate if all of you could spread the word. We want this first event to be as big as possible in order to make any subsequent events even bigger. Finally, if you are an angel or a VC firm, please let us know as well as this is a great opportunity to discover local startups.

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