Second startup weekend to hit Omaha

A recent college graduate and a businessperson who’s owned a company for several decades have different backgrounds, levels of experience and ideas for the future. On September 10, college grads, business owners and people from all walks of life will have the opportunity to work together to make new business ideas a reality at the second Omaha Startup Weekend event.

“Anyone who has motivation, an idea or a passion or the desire should go,” said Corey Spitzer, event organizer for Omaha Startup Weekend. “We’re not really restricting it to people who have past experience or anything like that. We get people from different walks of life, different skill sets and different levels of expertise.

“We’ll get some successful businesspeople working alongside undergrad college students. We’ll get freelance writers and software companies. Pretty much anyone who has the drive. It all sort of works out organically.”

Startup Weekend is a nationwide organization that encourages the growth of businesses by bringing different people together to brainstorm ideas and by the end of the weekend, create a plan for that idea to become a reality.

“It’s not necessarily about offering something. It’s a learning experience for a lot of people,” Spitzer said. “Whatever you can contribute is fine. No one is going to look down on you if you don’t know something.”

Everyone starts out in the same room and once everyone arrives, the attendees pitch ideas one at a time. Those ideas are voted on and the best ones go to small groups for discussion and planning.

Back in March, Startup Weekend hosted its first Omaha event. Most of the group discussions focused on networking and learning from the groups’ experiences. Since then, some of the ideas aren’t moving forward but most of the groups’ ideas are still flourishing.

“The destiny of the project is totally in the hands of the group and it’s totally controlled within the group,” Spitzer said. “There are at least if not more than about half the projects that are still going on.”

The event is ideal for those who have an idea but aren’t sure how far it can go. At the weekend event, the idea can go far with the help of others in attendance.

Spitzer said either way attendees learn a lot.

“I would say that no matter who you are, no matter what your motivations are, learning something new, such as networking or whatever it is, I think it’s an experience everyone should have at least once,” Spitzer said. “Some have said it changed them.

“I think people are just kind of surprised with what they can get done in a weekend and how that can have the potential to change their lifestyle. Working with other people with other perspectives.”

Spitzer said those interested in seeing how far an idea can go should register ahead of time to guarantee a spot at the event. However, there are opportunities for same-day registration.