Bloomington Startup Weekend

When our future founders hear their tummies rumble this weekend and look for something to satisfy the hunger, they can thank the efforts of two undergraduate women for bringing some sponsored snacks to our Startup Weekend experience.

Early adopters of the concept, Katie O’Donnell and Katrina Panovich not only signed on to participate but also to organize. They took on the responsibility for hoofing around town, talking to local restaurants, and trying to convince these businesses to give us free food and discounts.

They were very successful.

Although the details are being finalized today and tomorrow, the tentative plan is:

• Friday Dinner: Village Deli/Laughing Planet—They will likely be a major sponsor of our event, donating $500 worth of food to the cause.
• Saturday Breakfast—We are on our own
• Saturday Lunch: Bloomingfoods—Most likely, we’ll have a spread of buffet style deli sandwiches and maybe some trays of veggies and fruit.
• Saturday Dinner: Pizza Express—The local pizza favorite is donating 125 plastic cups for the event (to help us be a little more green than disposable containers) and giving us a monster discount on 40 pizzas.
• Sunday Breakfast: Cereal Barn—This unique local restaurant is donating enough cereal for 100 people.
• Sunday Lunch—We are on our own again (although, cash-flow pending, we may be able to purchse some food to be brought in)
• Sunday Dinner: Opie Taylors—For our final evening together, we’re dining out. The entire restaurant is going to be available for us at 6pm. We’ve got an 18% discount that night (food only, not beer) and some door prizes. Bloomington Startup Weekend will contribute what we can to lower the dinner bill further, but we each may need to bring a little cash.

A few other places are providing 10% discounts to Startup Weekend participants.

Dinner at 6p should be a useful time for a break. It will come before the important meeting Sunday evening to decide the fate of our new company, and before the 9pm launch. It will also allow any out-of-town travelers who need to leave early to join us for one final gathering before heading back home.

This was a huge undertaking, perhaps the most difficult task of all of the organizers. My thanks to Katie and Katrina for pulling this off.