Turn ideas to prototypes in a weekend
"Bring your ideas to life. Over a weekend, in 50 hours. That's what reads on the In50hrs Web site.
What does an idea mean for an entrepreneur or an aspiring entrepreneur? I guess a lot. Certainly because that is where everything begins.
But is having an idea enough? What does it take to make that Idea more than just an idea? Is it going to build itself? Obviously not. And especially if you are an aspiring entrepreneur or a student, it's all the more difficult for you to get answers to a lot of your questions.
So what does one really do? Well, one such event that brings people together to not just have an idea and discuss it, but to collaborate over a weekend and actually make a prototype out of your ideas. Something that could potentially solve real world problems.
This year I'm going to attend this event to actually find out what it's all about and to make sense of how this process really works and probably get to interact with a few folks to find out how useful this event really is. So before I do that, let me give you some idea about what this event is all about.
What is In50hrs?
In50hrs is the essentially an Idea-to-Prototype platform for various aspiring entrepreneurs, students, folks with great ideas, developers, product designers to come together and work on some ideas that will help solve real problems and to further build working protoypes over a weekend. The prototypes basically get demoed on the "Demo Evening" to peers and a panel of jury.
The In50hrs Story
In50hrs started in March 2011, when Dorai Thodla, Suresh Sambandam and Vijay Anand came together along with other folks from the Chennai startup scene to put together a community effort towards encouraging more and more collaborated attempts to get folks together and build a prototype within a weekend over 50 hours.
"We believe it is a crucial piece in the startup ecosystem--in teaching people how to prototype, and in connecting entrepreneurs in the community to give back (as early as them seeing product-market fit) so that the next crop of entrepreneurs are learning from their peers. Most of all, it nudges people to act rather than sitting on their idea, and learn a skill or two along the way," the founders said on the site.
Where will it happen?
It happens in four cities: Pune, Chennai, Trivandrum and Bangalore. Pune on 5th-7th April, Chennai on 19th-21st April and Trivandrum on 3rd to 5th May 2013. These are the ones for which registrations have opened up. I'll be attending the event in Pune to get an idea of what it's all about and hopefuly to interact with the folks out there and know more about the event and how useful will that be for everyone.
What to expect?
If you are an aspiring entrepreneur, student, a developer, product designer then you could choose to go to this event. Of course there is a registration fee, just so you know.
So far as the agenda goes on the Web site, the first day would be all about submitting the ideas, the pitch sessions and then the kickoff for the prototype build. On Saturday the teams will build on their prototypes and around lunch time, there will be a guest entrepreneur talk otherwise it's mostly hacking all day long. And the final day would be demo day where the teams will have to give functional prototype demos.
So I'd certainly look forward to attending this event and getting an insight on what really goes into the making of such an event and what it yields for the participants. I'll also get a chance to talk to the people involved and the ones who'll be building these prototypes and would come back with another blog with my learnings and more importantly insights on how useful an event like this is for the ecosystem.
If you have any questions for the organizers or the people who are participating in this event, do let me know.