Startup Weekend Comes To Lansing For 54 Hours Of Innovation

LANSING -- Lansing Startup Weekend kicks off this Friday, Oct. 5, at the Neo Center, 934 Clark St., Lansing.

The event is an informal platform for people with innovative ideas to collaborate with each another in a short time frame to produce viable business concepts.

Starting at 6 p.m. on Friday, participants will have the opportunity to pitch their ideas in hopes of gaining support from others looking to offer their expertise to these startup ideas.

What follows is two days of intensive work to develop the businesses as far as possible before pitching to investors and thought-leaders on Sunday evening.

"Startup Weekend is a great way to highlight budding entrepreneurs," said Jeff Smith, co-director of the Lansing Economic Area Partnership's New Economy Division. "This weekend will give them an opportunity to pitch their ideas and forge teams that can end up creating companies and jobs across the entire Lansing area."

This year's event is a partnership between LEAP and the Neo Center in Lansing. With the help of Startup Weekend, the event will be held in Lansing for the fourth time as an educational entrepreneurial experience for innovative minded people. Any person is invited to participate on a team of their choosing after the pitches are made.

"Startup Weekend is a great match with what we do at the Neo Center," said Tom Stewart, the center's managing partner. "Since we opened last year, we have 18 tenants at the Neo Center. It's amazing to watch these small startups work together in an environment where big ideas blossom and where no idea is a bad idea."

This year's event immediately follows an event organized by Michigan State University's Office for International Students and Scholars on entrepreneurship options for international students. This event will also take place at the Neo Center from 4 to 6 p.m. Friday.

Visit http://lansing.startupweekend.org for more information on attending as a participant or watching the pitches.

Startup Weekend is a national organization which partners with communities to extend their mission of entrepreneurial education. The Startup Weekend events are weekend-long, hands-on experiences where entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs can find out if startup ideas are viable. On average, half of Startup Weekend's attendees have technical or design backgrounds, the other half have business backgrounds.

More about LEAP at www.purelansing.com.