UQ Idea Hub

 

Friday 10 August - Sunday 12 August 2018

Calling all rule-breakers, risk-takers & change-makers! The UQ Weekend of Startups is BACK, and BETTER than ever!

Over the weekend, you’ll be challenged to find your crew and come up with the next hot business idea. With support from our team and mentors, by Sunday night, you’ll have prototyped & validated your big idea and your team will be ready to deliver your killer pitch to our experienced panel of judges.

Already got a winning idea? Awesome! Bring yourself and your idea. This is an opportunity for you to test it out, find some co-founders and score some cool prizes.

Find out more

1 problem

54 hours to formulate, prototype & pitch

100 developers, designers, hackers & hustlers

  • UQ
  • ​UQ Business School
  • ​UQ IES
  • ​ilab
  • ​Canstar
  • ​Hoffman Kelly
  • ​iwantmyname
  • ​Arch hardware incubator
  • ​Red Bull
  • ​Risk Advisory Partners
  • ​That Startup Company
  • ​Vision6

Event Details 2018

Who

UQ students, UQ alumni and interested members of the entrepreneurial community

When

5:30pm Friday 10 August - Sunday 12 August 2018

Where

Room 303, Advanced Engineering Building
UQ, St Lucia Campus

Get tickets

How does it all work?

UQ Weekend of Startups begins on Friday night, where you’ll hear all the ideas and find your team. You’ll spend most of Saturday and Sunday validating and prototyping your idea, attending workshops, meeting mentors and practising your pitch. By Sunday night you’ll be ready to deliver your pitch to our panel of judges!

The weekend is a great platform for entrepreneurs, experts and builders to come together and create a final product, test real-world applicability and present your product to industry judges and investors.

The UQ Weekend of Startups is not-for-profit and is run by UQ students and staff volunteers as well as Brisbane's entrepreneurial community.

Who can attend?

Anyone! UQ students, alumni and all members of the general public are invited to join. Each team formed on the weekend must have at least one current UQ student.

I don’t have a tech background, can I still attend?

Yes! A strong team backs each other up and has a variety of different strengths and skills. So if you’re a marketer, designer, entrepreneur or just generally interested in shaking things up, this event is for you.

Team at the Weekend of Startups

View photos from the Weekend of Startups 2016

This year's challenge

#CatalyseConnections

catalyse
transitive verb cat·a·lyse \kat-l-īz\

  1. to bring about the catalysis of (a chemical reaction)
  2. bring about, inspire
  3. to alter significantly by or as if by catalysis

connection
noun con·nec·tion \ kə-ˈnek-shən \

  1. the act of connecting : the state of being connected
  2. something that connects
  3. a person connected with another
  4. a political, social, professional, or commercial relationship
  5. a set of persons associated together

Catalyse Connections

Catalyse Connections

We are more and less connected than we have ever been, yet connections are worth more than they’ve ever meant before.

Everyone and everything is connected, family, friends, work, social, university, school, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers – but how can we inspire connections in our ever changing, fast-paced world?

The need to connect is an inherently human trait -
“Let’s connect over coffee!”
“Connect with me on LinkedIn.”
“I feel a real connection here.”

Whether we’re connecting with people for the first time, deepening existing connections, or multiplying our networks,

we want to see how your ideas can Catalyse Connections.

Judging Criteria

  • Validation
  • Business Model/Scalability
  • Pitch/Design
  • Tech/Build
  • Execution/Work

Judges and Mentors

We've got an awesome line up an experienced group of industry experts, investors and serial entrepreneurs joining the Weekend of Startups!

Prizes

Check out our fantastic prizes!

Champions of Weekend

1st Prize

  • $1,000 cash (Sponsored by UQ)
  • Lunch with Canstar CEO, CTO, COO (Sponsored by Canstar)
  • Personal consult with Hoffman Kelly to work through your business finances.
  • ilab fast-track to bootcamp (Sponsored by ilab)

2nd Prize

  • $500 cash
  • Personal consult with Hoffman Kelly to work through your business finances.

3rd Prize

  • $250 cash
  • Personal consult with Hoffman Kelly to work through your business finances.
Spirit of the Weekend

Sponsored by Vision6

Vision6 are offering one lucky #UQWOS18 participant a ticket to the 2018 Email Marketing Summit Australia (EMSA).

​
Best Prototype Prize

Sponsored by That Startup Company

12 month subscription of Zapier for Work.


Best Hardware Prize

Sponsored by Arc Hardware Incubator

'Best Hardware' of the weekend will be awarded 1 month of their Team Hardware Startup Membership (for up to 3 people) at Arc, valued at $500.

How can you get involved?

Partner with us

We’re on the look out for like-minded industry partners who’d like to support the local startup community and contribute to the success of the event through financial or pro-bono support.

Run a workshop or become a mentor

Mentors and coaches are the backbones of the event. If you’d like to volunteer your time as a mentor or run a workshop that could benefit the participants by helping them validate or scale their ideas, then we’d love to hear from you.

Help us get the word out!

Know someone who would be interested or do you have access to a community that would love to hear more? Please get in touch! We can share more information with you and support you with any digital assets you need to get the word out.
Email ideahub@uq.edu.au for more information.

Join the conversation

Don’t forget to share this event and join in on the conversation. We’re on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn

#UQWOS #UQGameChangers

What to know more?

In order to get the most exposure for your sponsorship, we would love to hear from you as soon as possible.

For more information, please contact: