Event Schedule
Contents
Overview
While each Startup Weekend is a little different, the following schedule gives a sense of what a typical three day schedule will look like.
Both in-person and online event schedule templates are available in your Planning Sheet.
In-person event: Friday (Day 1)
Day 1 is all about welcoming participants to the event, making sure that everyone knows what will happen throughout the weekend, running the pitch fire, and facilitating team formation.
Example schedule:
In-person event: Saturday (Day 2)
Day 2 is all about getting things done. Participants work on their minimum viable product and receive mentorship from local industry experts.
Example schedule:
In-person event: Sunday (Day 3)
Day 3 is for completing work, final pitch presentations, networking, and celebrations!
Example schedule:
Online event Schedule
The overall online event schedule remains very similar to a regular, offline Startup Weekend. When creating a schedule for your online event, keep in mind that people working from home have a lot more distractions and responsibilities. You may have to incorporate additional breaks into your program or break up sessions into smaller chunks to account for the participants needs.
We have outlined each activity, along with some tips & tricks below.
Online event: Saturday (Day 1)
Example schedule:
Online event logistics
Event Kick off
The facilitator runs through the Techstars Startup Weekend deck, welcomes participants to the event, introduces the organizing team, mentors, sponsors, and partners, and explains every step of the weekend.
Tips & Tricks
Perform a tech check before you begin with each speaker who will be appearing on screen.
Ensure that each speaker is in a quiet space where they can be undisturbed for the entire duration of the event.
If you are streaming live on Youtube, Facebook, etc., share the link where everyone can join you in advance.
If you are having a private kick off, ensure that everyone knows which tool you will be using, and how & when to join you.
Start on time! Participants can become impatient quickly if you keep them waiting.
Be energized! You want to keep them engaged for a long time, so it’s important that you start on a high note.
Cue music during breaks and before announcements are made while waiting for people to trickle into the call.
Keep it short and simple. Cover all the important information, but try to keep the presentation under 40 minutes.
Pitchfire
Ideally, participants would have submitted ideas in advance, through a form. Invite all of them to pitch their idea live in 60 seconds. We recommend Zoom or Google Meet for this. If there is time, give an opportunity to anyone who has not submitted an idea, but would like to pitch, to do so.
* Please note that this format should work well for events with up to 125 participants.
Tips & Tricks
Have a list of all submitted ideas, alongside the name of the person who pitched each idea.
Use a video conferencing tool (Zoom or Google meet) to host your pitchfire session.
Call the idea pitchers by their name when inviting them to pitch
Keep track of who pitched. If someone is called, but does not respond, make sure to call their name once more later on.
For new ideas that are pitched, add the idea name, idea owner, and elevator pitch to the list of submitted ideas. You’ll need them all for the next step.
Voting
We have learned from experience that participants appreciate it when the voting process is transparent and collaborative.
Once the pitches are finished, share a simple form (example here) where the participants can vote on all the ideas. Ideally, you will have that form prefilled with all the ideas submitted prior to Friday. Don’t forget to add any new ideas pitched earlier to this form.
Here is an example of the form.
Tips & Tricks
Limit to 1 response per respondent
You can collect the respondent’s names / email addresses if you want to prevent fraud (e.g. registered participants sharing the form externally, with friends and family, to get more votes)
Networking / Icebreaker
Voting should not take too long and, in order to fill up some time and keep up the momentum before announcing the selected ideas, you can host a networking activity or an icebreaker game.
Tips & Tricks
On Zoom, you can create break out rooms, and have people get to know each other in smaller groups.
Icebreaker is a cool tool - it allows you to pre-set some conversation prompts and pair people randomly for a chat. All you have to do is come up with some fun questions, to get the conversation started.
Idea Selection
Once the voting is done, tally up the votes and select the top ideas.
Tips & Tricks
Remember that the ideal team size at Techstars Startup Weekend is 4 to 8 people. You may have larger or smaller groups.
Keep that 4 to 8 person range in mind when deciding how many ideas to select, based on the number of participants and teams you would like to see formed.
For example for an event with 100 participants, you’d select roughly 16 ideas. The average number of team members would be 6.
Announcing Selected Ideas
Once you have selected the top ideas, bring everyone back into the livestream room. The facilitator should announce all the ideas and invite each idea owner to do their 1 minute pitch again (if time allows).
Tips & Tricks
Remind the idea owner to mention what skillsets they are looking to add on to their team
Have someone from the organizing team responsible for muting / unmuting participants, to avoid having any background noise.
Team Formation
Forming teams is a really important part of the event. It is an organic process at an offline Startup Weekend, and it’s one that might be a bit chaotic online.
We recommend that the team formation take place on your event communication platform (Slack, Discord, etc). You can set up a team formation channel on the platform, list all selected ideas there & tag the idea owner, and encourage people to engage in a conversation on threads in order to form the team.
Once the teams are formed, they will have until Saturday morning at 10am to register their team. This is an important step, so that you have a good overview of all the teams that are working on the weekend. Make sure to create a team registration form (example here) and share it with all teams - only one team member needs to fill it in.
Please note that this is only a recommendation. Feel free to experiment with another team formation process. If you do, please let your Regional Manager know, so that we can learn from you and improve this process.
Tips & Tricks
Create an attendee directory where the participants’ skills and contact information are visible. You could create that using Airtable, a simple spreadsheet, or another tool of your choice.
Alternatively, if you can’t create a directory, ask that every participant adds their skills (developer, designer, business, marketing, etc) to their Slack/Discord name.
Have the organizing team support the team formation process. Check in with participants and if they do not have a team, help them join one.
Create separate channels for each team and invite them to use that space for team communication once the teams are formed.
Online event: Saturday (Day 2)
Example Schedule:
What you will need:
Team Registration Form, Template guide here
NOTE: Your team is responsible for creating one specifically for your event by following the template guide.
Online event logistics
Saturday Kick Off
The facilitator runs through the schedule for Saturday, introduces the mentors, runs through the mentor signup process, and sets expectations for what teams should achieve by the end of Saturday.
Tips & Tricks
Use this time to set expectations for what needs to happen on Saturday and what the teams should focus on.
Remind participants about:
Judging criteria
Partner perks
Registering their team. This is an important step, so that you have a good overview of all the teams that are working on the weekend. See the Form templates page for team registration form template guide - please remember to create one for your event.
Integrate a networking activity if you can and get people to mingle before they kick off the day.
Explain the mentoring process and ask participants to sign up for mentoring sessions before lunchtime.
Optional workshop, Teams Work & Lunch Break
Workshop
Host a workshop if you would like to. A few suggested workshop topics are Customer Validation, Business Model Canvas, Prototyping, etc.
Tips & Tricks
You can invite an external speaker, or have your facilitator or one of the organizers host the workshop.Here you can find workshop materials created by Techstars - feel free to use them.
An alternative is to share pre-recorded content. You can use resources from the Techstars Entrepreneur Toolkit (Build Your Lean Canvas, Understand Your Customers, Master Your Pitch), or share content from any other source.
Teams Work
It is important that teams have enough time to get to work throughout the weekend. During this time, be available to answer any questions that participants may have.
Lunch Break
You can give participants an option to have a social lunch on Zoom or another platform, or simply have a 1 hour, device-free break.
Mentoring Sessions
Be available to support the teams and mentors throughout the mentoring process. A detailed overview of the mentoring process can be found on our Mentoring and Judging Online page.
Team Check-Ins
We recommend that you check in with teams at different points during the day to see if they are on track or need support. After the mentoring sessions it is possible that some participants might be overloaded with information and feel stuck. This is a good moment to have a short check-in call with each team.
Saturday Round Up
Host a group session to debrief after a long day, ‘re-energize’ the group, and set expectations for the following day.
Tips & TricksHere are a few options for additional activities:
Make your group session interactive - invite people to share their highlights/learnings from the day.
Integrate a networking activity - get participants to chat to one another.
Play an icebreaker game.
Online event: Sunday (Day 3)
Example Schedule:
What you will need:
Final presentation Submission Form
Sunday Judging Form
Both templates and guidance can be found on our Form Templates page.
NOTE: Your team is responsible for creating one specifically for your event by following the template guide.
Online event logistics
Sunday Kick Off
The facilitator runs through the schedule for Sunday, introduces the judges, runs through the final presentations process, and sets expectations for what teams should achieve and submit by the final pitch submission deadline.
Tips & Tricks
Use this time to set expectations for what will happen on Sunday and what the teams should focus on.
Remind participants about:
Judging criteria
Deadline for submitting their final presentation
Designating one person responsible for pitching.
Integrate a networking activity if you can and get people to mingle before they kick off the day.
Pitch Workshop or Mentoring Sessions (optional)
Tips & tricks
Host a pitch workshop if you can, so that all participants feel prepared and on the same page.
If you can’t host a workshop, make sure to share a proposed pitch template and guidelines for the pitch, including the pitch time limit, important points to mention, and judging criteria. You can consider sharing this pre-recorded pitch workshop.
If you are planning to invite mentors on Sunday, this would be a good time for mentoring sessions.
Teams Continue to Work
It is important that teams have enough time to get to work throughout the weekend. During this time, be available to answer any questions that participants may have.
Deadline for submitting final presentations
Ask every team to submit their final presentation, so that your team can queue up all presentations for the Live Demo Day.
Tips & tricks
Here is a template for the final presentation submission form - please remember to create one for your event.
Virtual Demo Day
Your virtual Demo Day can be conducted differently depending on the number of attendees. We have learned from experience that participants appreciate the opportunity to interact with the judging panel, and to receive feedback on their ideas.
With this in mind, we suggest that for events with up to 125 participants you host a virtual Demo Day with live interaction and include all teams. To ensure that everything runs smoothly, you can ask participants to submit their pitch in a video format by 3pm on Sunday, play the video for the audience, and then open it up for live Q&A with the jury.
We recommend hosting a Virtual Demo Day for all teams.
Suggested final presentations format:
Live presentations + live Q&A with the jury
Each team has 4 minutes for the presentation and 3 minutes to answer questions from the jury
Each team appoints one person responsible for presenting
Any team member can answer questions from the judging panel
Pre-recorded video presentations + live Q&A with the judging panel
Each team submits a pre-recorded final presentation of 4 minutes max
After the video is played, the team members have 3 minutes to answer live questions from the judging panel.
Judging
In either scenario, the judges will listen to all final presentations, ask clarifying questions, and rate each team according to the Techstars Startup Weekend judging criteria.
After the presentations, the facilitator and judges will gather on a call to deliberate and select the overall 3 winning teams.
Resource to use: Techstars Startup Weekend Online - Sunday Judging Form Template*
Guest Speaker
After the virtual Demo Day the judges will need some time to deliberate on the top teams.
This is a great time to invite a speaker, so that you can keep your audience engaged and provide some great content. *
*This is optional. You could also use this time for a break or for a networking activity.
Awards Ceremony & Wrap Up
This is the time to announce the event winners and wrap up the weekend.
After Party (optional)
Many great events end with an after-party. You can use this opportunity to bring everyone together once the event has ended to celebrate a fantastic weekend.
