Startup Weekend Campinas will rock!

For the very first time, a Startup Weekend Campinas is going to happen on May 13 to 15, 2011 at Unicamp’s (University of Campinas) Electrical and Computer Engineering School (FEEC). The event is going to foment the local entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem.

The Campinas session was sold out about 20 days in advance and is bringing attendees from several cities among several Brazilian states. According to Roberto Lotufo, director of Inova Unicamp (Innovation Agency of the University of Campinas), it demonstrates a repressed demand for this kind of initiative in the Brazilian entrepreneurial scene.

Next Friday, the opening session will have an investment panel with Cristina Pereira (BM&F Bovespa), Angela Ximenes (ABVCAP), Francisco Martinez (Integra) and Márcio Santos Filho (FGV-CEPE/Inseed), followed by a startup panel with Júlio Vasconcellos, founder of Peixe Urbano and an innovation panel with Benedito Fayan, director of Telefonica’s Innovation Center.

After the panels, each attendee will have 1 minute to pitch their ideas for the group. The best ideas will be selected and the multidisciplinary teams built to execute it throughout the weekend.

According to the Startup Weekend website, “Startup Weekends are 54-hour events where developers, designers, marketers, product managers and startup enthusiasts come together to share ideas, build products and launch startups”.  Usually half of the attendees are technical and the other half designers and business people.

According to Igor Santiago, president of Campinas Startups (the association in charge of organizing the event), “one of our biggest challenges for the next sessions is to attract more creative people, such as designers and advertising professionals and this is a challenge not just for the Brazilian market.”

Throughout Saturday and Sunday, the teams will work developing their ideas with the support of experienced mentors from companies such as Apontador, Movile, Inventta, Dextra, Bettawork, Criatec Fund, Mega, Gestratum, ConnectUse, FM2S, WJC IT, EI2 and Sensedia.

On Sunday afternoon, a judge’s panel will choose the winners. Cesar Gon (Ci&T), Anderson Thees (Apontador), José Rodolfo Bernardoni (Ewiks), Edson Rigonatti (Astella Investimentos), Fernando Matt (Ci&T/IVP), Eduardo Coppo (Dextra), Rene Fernandes (FGV) e Fabricio Bloisi (Movile) are confirmed to judge the final pitches.

The event was organized by Campinas Startups and partners connected to Silicon Valley, with the support of Unicamp (University of Campinas), Unicamp’s Electrical and Computer Engineering School and Innovation Agency, besides Inova Ventures Partners (IVP), CIESP, AMCHAM, Sebrae, Anprotec, Brazil Innovators, Microsoft e Oi FM.

Startup Weekend Campinas is sponsored by Movile, Apontador, Intel, Padtec, Betta Informática e Ci&T.

RSVP for the opening on Friday and Sunday's final webcasting at http://www.livestream.com/innoveur! You can watch it Innoveur!

For more information go to http://campinas.startupweekend.org/ and follow the event @StartupWeekCPS.