Garage48 Valmiera will start on Friday, 27th of April at 5:30pm in Valmiera Business and Innovation Incubator (VBII), Purva iela 12A, in Valmiera (see on Google Maps). Please come on time, as the registration process might take some time. Everyone will get their badges and stuff from sponsors.

WHAT TO BRING WITH YOU?

• Positive attitude, open mind and lots of energy :)
  
• Everything you need for a rapid product development. 
• Please take your:
• laptop
• all chargers, 
  
• 3-5m power extension cord (as power might be on distance),
• mobile phone
• Optional:
• pen and paper
• photo camera to take and share photos
• mattress, sleeping bag and towel (in case you registered for sleepover at the venue)
  
• credit cards for domain registration
  
• business cards

PITCHING IDEAS

• If your idea gets to TOP30 list, please prepare a good pitch. Consider following key points:
• Briefly describe your background (10 sec)
• Your idea and "the problem" what are you solving, target user count and description (30 sec)
• The solution: technical + business model (30 sec)
• Which skills do you need and what is realistic to build in 48 hours (20 sec)
• Look at the guideline and example "how to prepare a good pitch" (slideshare)
• NB! Practice your pitch to your friends or family before you present! 90 seconds goes really fast!
• You can prepare 1 (one) PDF slide to support your pitch. If you wish to show a slide, then please send it for us for Friday noon (27th of April) by e-mail info@garage48.org and we have it ready in our computer on-site. Please put your project name as subject line.
  

FORMING TEAMS

• After pitching is over, we will put all ideas on the wall. Every participant will choose their favourite idea. Usually 12-15 best ideas will get enough interested team members to get the "green light" for implementation. 
• Average team has about 5-7 people and the team should be "balanced" - covering all required roles like a project manager, developer(s), designer and marketer in order to get the product/service ready in 48 hours! Minimum size for a team is 4 people and max is 8 people.
  
• If some ideas get too few people or not balanced teams (probablyunable to build the service), the idea will be dumped. Those people should choose another idea / team.

WORKING IN TEAMS

• After forming the teams, organizers will give a room/space for every team for the weekend. Start by dividing roles, set the product vision, customer journe and start working right away.
• It is very important that you have a project manager for the team - one of his tasks is to keep the focus of the team, one eye on the clock and the other on the team progress. 48 hours is really a short time.
  
• We can help you with domain registration and hosting if you need. Ask from organizers.
• Food and drinks. We provide breakfast, lunch and dinner on Saturday and Sunday. So you can focus on work and building your product. See agenda for details.
  
• Mentors. We have arranged mentors to work with the teams throughout the weekend. Some of them are more technical, some more business savvy, so be open and ask for their advice and contacts in case you need.
  
• Please wear your name badge during the whole event, this will help to encourage networking and gets you inside through security guards. Otherwise be open, get to know new people, share your ideas and give ideas/feedback to other teams. Of course, have fun!

SUNDAY DEMO NIGHT

• Sunday afternoon 14:30 pm is the deadline. Either you have your service ready or not, time will tell.
• Every team will practice their demo together with mentors and jury members for 10 minutes to make the final adjustments and make a better presentation.
• We do not allow any Powerpoint presentations for web services - we want a live demo!
  
• The final demo event starts at 5:30pm
• We will pick teams randomly. Every team gets 3 minutes for product demonstration (+3 minutes for questions).
  
• We admit, that the development process is the ultimate importance. But we still have a jury, to evaluate the results and choosethe top projects.
  
• When jury goes "off" to choose the winners, we have few speakersfrom our sponsors telling you how they could work and help with your teams after the Garage48 event.

HOSTING SERVICES

• Our hosting partner in Valmiera is Makonix

ACCOMMODATION

• Usually local participants stay at home or at their friends place.
• As we have about 20 people coming from abroad (mostly Estonia and Lithuania), then please consider your sleeping options.
• Valmiera Business and Innovation Incubator provides floor space for sleeping at the venue for "bootstrappers" from abroad. You will have to take everything you need for sleeping - airbed, mattress and sleeping bag. 
  

• If you have further questions, please see the Agenda and FAQ page. If you don't find an answer there, then please write us at info@garage48.org

SPONSORS

We thank all our sponsors and partners to make Garage48 Valmiera a cool startup community event!