Proto has been taking place for sometime, but Jan 2009 is my first proto.in attendance and it was worth the trip to Bangalore. I went in with some expectations and yes, they were fulfilled. The highlights of the event is given below.
- Awesome talks – There was one talk by Bob Young(founder of redhat) which was simply awesome. There were others as well which were informative and fun sessions.
- Great audience – People from all walks of professional life, met a lawyer, a HR guy, a finance guy and so on … with so much variety one can only choose to get bored of such company.
- Neat theme / tshirt - The paper plane theme was awesome and in one session where Kiruba got everyone to throw airplanes onto the podium was especially lots of fun.
- Techies – Special mention to Sheryas , Aswin , Moyeen , Vijay who made it clear to me that B’lore + Chennai is still very much ahead on the super nerd density index. Clever engineers to hang out with is the least i can say about these guys.
- Startups – Last but not the least, a great bunch of startups were there promoting their stuff. It was cool to see some interesting revenue models and different ideas. Shotgun startup was one fun event to take part in
(this deserves a complete post by itself).
All in all, I had a lot of fun. Thanks to Vijay and the proto team for making me a part of something awesome. Looking forward to making proto a bigger and better event going ahead.
How many times have you had a cool idea that never saw the light? Or that amazing conversation you had with your best friends which resulted to nothing? It can be that amazing facebook application to solve all the problems of your single friends, or that Iphone game that will rock the world, or an android application, or that robot which will help elderly people remember their pill times. Whatever it is, this is a time to build it and ride the wave with the support of the entire startup community. Surprised?
Well, we hear ya! We call this Shotgun Startup and its your way to huddle together for 48 hours and work on something which will change the world.
How do YOU participate you ask?
Step1 : Get those scribble books out and start going through all those ideas. Once you have decided on the idea you want to implement go here and submit it. This is where the fun begins, The ShotGun Team will go through all your proposals and pick 20 ideas which have the most potential – In other words, that which sounds uber cool and useful.
Step 2: Now that your idea is shortlisted, you need to put together a team which helps you realize this idea. All shortlisted projects can publish list of open roles and participants can apply to be part of this team. You get to pick the ones you like! Use your blogs, twitters, facebooks to find these people and get them as part of the team.
Step 3: Its 22nd January evening and there are 20 teams eager to make it happen. We have experts on various platforms like Android, Iphone, Php, ROR etc, Just in case you need some expert advice. This is where we give you plenty of wifi, coffee (maybe food) and get out of your way. For the next 48 hours its you, your team and your product. Make it happen, and breathe life into your idea.
The Proto.in attendees will start voting for your ideas on the 24th, The top 5 teams will then move to Innovation Jam where they get 5 minutes to present the idea and then the audience can suggest enhancements to the product so it can move towards being a full fledged product.
As the adage goes “Let the Startups win”, sharpen your pencils now! and for more information head to http://shotgun.proto.in Now!
PS: Have you registered for the event yet? if not, head to www.proto.in/register
Proto.in January edition is in the dates of January 23, 24 2009 in the Nimhan’s Convention Centre in Bangalore.