Startup Weekend Honolulu Returns Friday

The eighth Startup Weekend Honolulu is this weekend, coinciding with the sixth annual Global Startup Battle, which this year spans over 250 cities around the globe. A mix of developers, designers, entrepreneurs and marketers will come together on Friday night to pitch ideas and form teams, and will be expected to have a product and company to pitch by Sunday night.

The marathon 54-hour pitch and prototyping exercise comes after three lead-up workshops to help participants prepare.

This round's celebrity guest judge is Kwame Jackson, who got his start after starring in the first season of NBC's reality competition show "The Apprentice." The rest of the judging panel includes Chenoa Farnsworth, Managing Director of Blue Startups and Hawaii Angels, Robbie Melton, CEO and Executive Director of the High Tech Development Corp. (HTDC), Luke Tucker of Sultan Ventures, and Allison Izu Song of The Cut Collective.

This will also be the first Startup Weekend Honolulu spearheaded by new lead organizers Jessica Ching and Kenneth Huang, to whom Bryan Butteling passed the torch in August.

"During my time, we've seen at least five companies spin out of our Startup Weekend events statewide and have hosted over 500 local entrepreneurs," Butteling said at the time. "I'll be shifting my role to an advisor for the board as I pursue my dream in tech by attending our local programming bootcamp Dev League."

Indeed, the output of Startup Weekend Honolulu isn't always merely theoretical. The second-place winner of the previous Startup Weekend Honolulu, Grumble, is now part of the sixth cohort of Blue Startups. And several previous Startup Weekend projects are still going strong, from Varsity Prep to Wefficiency.

Startup Weekend Honolulu's fall 2015 event runs from 6 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 13 to 9 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 15. The kickoff and finale will be held at Kakaako Agora (441 Cooke St.), with the design and build marathon hosted at The Box Jelly (307 Kamani St.). To participate in the next Startup Weekend, register online $99 (plus $2.24 Eventbrite fee), or $25 (plus $1.13 fee) to attend only the opening pitch session and final presentations.

For more information, visit the Startup Weekend Honolulu website, connect with SWHNL on Facebook, or follow @SWHNL on Twitter.

Photo courtesy SWHNL on Facebook.