Phoenix Startup Weekend

It’s been almost a year since Startup Weekend Phoenix, so it’s probably safe to say we’ve all recovered by now. We keep hearing people who attended ask when the next one will be. People who missed the last one are asking as well.

How about this November? There’s a bit of a movement underway already (codename “Geek Week AZ”) involving several tech-related events — an action packed week full of independently organized events like PodCampAZ 3, 4th Annual AZ Entrepreneurship Conference, BIL Conference, TEDx Phoenix, Social Media Club Phoenix, TempeNerds, Geek-n-Eat, etc, etc, etc.

Why not throw Startup Weekend Phoenix into the mix?! The tentative plan is to align TEDx Phoenix, BIL Conference, and Startup Weekend Phoenix in a way where they flow together. TEDx is a night of presentations from people making a difference in the world (Videos from TED.com) and live presentations from people doing exciting things here in Phoenix. BIL Conference is a flexible “unconference” that focuses on sharing and discussing ideas. They can have a theme, and Phoenix’s will likely focus on Energy - solar technology, biofuels, and other alternative energies. Immediately after BIL ends, Startup Weekend can begin. After a day of talking about ideas, we would have Startup Weekend’s opening night asking for ideas to prototype and develop! The 3 events together could be an amazing fit!

For this to happen, we need your help!

These events are organized by volunteers, and each of these events, especially Startup Weekend, could use your help!

If you want this to happen, leave a comment or email me at brianshaler (at) gmaildotcom.

The following press release from Phoenix Startup Weekend company GPSPartFinder was received today…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Jim Graham
Telephone: 602-614-3178
Email: Jim.Graham@ServiceTradesSolutions.com

SERVICE TRADES SOLUTIONS ANNOUNCES DEVELOPMENT OF GPSPARTFINDER

Time, Fuel, and Money Savings for Field Service Technician Businesses

Service Trades Solutions, LLC announces its new product, GPSPartFinder. Say a skilled trades service technician is 40 miles from the office at a service location, and discovers that a needed part is not in the repair part stocked on his van. Using GPSPartFinder, and only a few simple clicks on a web-enabled mobile phone, the technician sends a query for his needed part. GPSPartFinder uses the positioning information from his location and searches the repair parts of mobile units to find the needed part on a van closer to the technician in need than the home office.

The technician connects with the colleague, transfers the part from one van to the other, returns to the service location, and completes the repair. Time and driving distance has been saved, compared with a trip back to the home office or to a supply house to procure the required part, resulting in more revenue generation and less gasoline cost.

Service Trades Solutions officially releases GPSPartFinder Friday, October 24, 2008 at the Air Conditioning Contractors Association - Arizona Chapter (ACCA-AZ) monthly membership lunch (10:45 AM) at the Embassy Suites Hotel, 2577 W. Greenway, Phoenix. Call ACCA-AZ at 602-298-5454 for registration information (lunch and the program is $30)

Service Trades Solutions, LLC emerged from the StartUp Weekend, Phoenix event with a viable and vital solution for deployed inventory management. Service Trades Solutions is focused on performance, efficiency, and effectiveness improvement for skilled trades through automation and streamlining of common service process bottlenecks.

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For more information or to schedule a an interview and demonstration of GPSPartFinder, contact Jim Graham at 602-614-3178 or Jim.Graham@ServiceTradesSolutions.com

Final presentations are in.  Twiterratr is up and running, analyzing opinions of people and topics.  Reserve Chute demoed backing up a twitter account and has it’s backend working with delicious, basecamp, campfire and GMail.  The site is taking signups and is on track to go beta in 48 hours. My Shelter Helper was able to generate custom blogs for animal shelters on the fly.  Reality Knot the alt reality game was tested / played by a few lucky attendees.  Food Fling showed their nutrition and diet tracking site and GPS Truck parts gave us a look at version .9, complete with maps of where the truck that has the parts you need is currently located.  Gangplank was cleaned up and vacated and this group of talented and terribly tired entrepreneurs headed home to catch some well earned sleep.