UQ Idea Hub

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.

1 problem

54 hours to formulate, prototype & pitch

100 developers, designers, hackers & hustlers

Event Details

Who attended

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

When

5:30pm Friday 1 September - Sunday 3 September 2017

Where

Room 303, Advanced Engineering Building
UQ, St Lucia Campus

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

#StudentLife

We get it. Student life can be hard. You’ve got assignments stacking up and the threat of exams is always looming around the corner. You’re surviving on Red Bull, UQ Union sausage sizzles and instant noodles. You use visits home as an opportunity to get your laundry done and stock up on homemade meals to bring back with you.

Between keeping up with tutorial work, locating the cheapest places to get a good feed, and diarising the best college parties, you’ve got your work cut out for you. So, it’s no surprise that you’ve occasionally thought something like: ‘I wish there was an app for that’ or, ‘this would be so much better if it worked like this’…

We know you have. So, here’s your chance!

Bring yourself and your killer #StudentLife ideas to UQ’s Weekend of Startups. With the support of mentors, industry experts and seasoned entrepreneurs, you’ll get a crash course in turning your ideas into reality.

Can you make life better, faster, easier or more impactful for students like you? Are you the next Google for student parties or Kickstarter for student ideas? Or maybe you’re the next Toms for textbooks. Your idea could change how visually impaired students participate in lectures; reduce student stress; or increase student wellness and financial security. Whatever your big idea is, find out if you’ve got what it takes at this year’s UQ Weekend of Startups.

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!

Champion of the Weekend

Entry into Pitchblak's pre-accelerator program for up to 2 members of the winning group (valued at $9,900)
The Start-up Playbook is a 13 week program that helps you prove your idea will work and get investment before building your product

Personal consult with Hoffman Kelly to work through your business finances.
Limited to 2 hours (valued at $836 incl GST). This time can be spent discussing any aspect of a business you wish.

Exposure for your business through UQ’s official marketing channels

$1,000 cash

Best business tech

Three dedicated desks for three months in Fishburners Brisbane at the Capital

Microsoft go-to-market prize
Free consultation with Microsoft professional and business team to help with the go-to-market plan/commercialisation

Personal consult with Hoffman Kelly to work through your business finances.
Limited to 2 hours (valued at $836 incl GST). This time can be spent discussing any aspect of a business you wish.

$250 cash 

Best business idea​

Paid internship with UQ Union to work on your idea
Teams or individuals with ideas that show significant potential may be offered part-time paid employment within the Union to progress ideas through a range of stages to assess their viability and likelihood of success. It is envisaged that UQU could offer 3 to 6 months of paid employment for up to 20 hours per week, depending on the complexity of the product.

Entry into iLab’s exclusive bootcamp

Personal consult with Hoffman Kelly to work through your business finances.
Limited to 2 hours (valued at $836 incl GST). This time can be spent discussing any aspect of a business you wish.

$250 cash 

 

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: