Few weeks ago I came across an information about Start-Up weekend in Ljubljana and it got me quite interested. It seemed like a great idea and opportunity to meet new people, work on some projects, gain new experience and knowledge. Since I don’t have any background in economics, business plan writing and such things, I was sure this was something I have to attend. And so I did.
On Friday afternoon we had a short introduction to the event and after that people with cool ideas presented their visions, innovations and ideas in general. Mine kind of didn’t fit in this context, so I didn’t represent it. After that it was our job to vote for the ones we thought are the best and we picked I think 13 of them. I picked the one named “Safe bike”.
So our group was made out of 11 members (8 women and only 3 guys – interesting, since it was about bicycles…). =D Well anyway, we were working on a security for bikes in city of Ljubljana. We were surprised how people reacted to this idea – they shared our web poll, in a bit over 24 hours about 200 people filled it, over night we got about 40 likes on our Facebook fan page and we talked to some people in person and more or less all of them supported us and many even wanted to help us in future! So hey, obviously everybody is having trouble with bike safety in Ljubljana.
On Sunday we even went to Kongresni trg in centre of Ljubljana and we washed bikes and kept them safe for few hours (free of charge of course). People were so excited about the idea! And we were surprised that we got our first “clients” in first half of hour! So it seems our idea really is something worth working on in future!
I am soooooo happy I went to this event. It was such a great experience, I met many awesome people, got so many ideas and knowledge, so I am sure this will all help me with my career in future. I am grateful for every working minute of this weekend – and hey, I even sacrificed my birthday for this! =D But still, totally worth it! =D
At the end our team didn’t win the whole Start-Up weekend event, but we did get positive feedback so we are still motivated and willing to work on this project. But first we need to have some rest, because it was a tough working weekend for us. But it seems like we are all still inspired and motivated to continue this, so if you think you could help us somehow, we would appreciate any help or advice we can get. =)
For now, here is a short video clip from our Sunday pop-up project (we used it as part of presentation of our project), and some photos from the whole event. =)
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opyIm_CieJY
Anja Perše 