Image via CrunchBase

This past weekend I had a blast attending the Dublin Startup Weekend graciously organised by @seanrmurphy (who originally had the idea to make this happen!)  For folks not familiar with the model you throw 50-100 eclectic people (developers, designers, MBA’s, artists) into a big room on a Friday evening, start-off with a few pints (we are in Dublin after all), open the mic for anyone to pitch an idea, then let the crowd self-select into teams.  By the end of the night teams have formed and the next two days are spent feverishly building a prototype, demo, app, product, etc. so as not to appear like an utter fool in front of the judges on Sunday night. 

Some observations from the event…

1) It’s pointless to spend too much time arguing over how to divide up a hypothetical fixed-pie of yet-to-be-created IP with a yet-to-be-determined value.

2) Contraints are brilliant!

3) Fear of embarrassment is almost as big of a motivator as constraints!

4) The model does a great job of overcoming the activation energy for new projects.  

5) Free-riders happen!

Over the next few weeks we will be actively playing around with the model a bit and seeing if we can massage it into a form that works to lower the barriers for new ideas coming out of Irish Universities, in particular the ICT CSETS.  I think academic researchers as well as TTO staff could benefit a good deal by looking beyond standard practices and exploring ways to engage these alternative models of commercialisation.  If you have any ideas or would like to hear more about what we’re doing give me a shout.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Startup Weekend Dublin & Paris (techme2.eu)
• Irish Techies & Entreprenuers - Dublin Startup Weekend (sluggerotoole.com)