Frequently Asked Questions

• What is Garage48 Tourism Pärnu? Garage48 is a weekend hackathon, where people pitch ideas, form teams and build prototypes or sometimes full service over the weekend. This time we partnered with Enterprise Estonia and other supporters to focus on innovative ideas in tourism sector, in particular getting awesome projects in 4 categories: ecotourism, lifestyle, activities/entertainmnet, food & wellness. 
• Who can participate? Registration is open to anyone. We are looking for people with different roles - front-end developers, back-end developers, mobile developers, designers, marketers, entrepreneurs, project managers, tourism secotr specialists and other people interested in building a cool project within 48 hours. If you register to Garage48, then we expect you to be ready to work on the project also after the Garage48 weekend is over.
• I don't have my own team? Can I come? Sure, Garage48 is about networking, meeting new people, hacking, building new services and finding new friends. After pitching ideas on Friday evening, all participants will choose their favourite idea and form a teams on-site. You should carefully review all pitched ideas, talk to the team members, negotiate, brainstorm and finally find a best matching project for yourself. Then join this team and start working on the project.
• How to submit and pitch an idea? We ask all participants to submit their ideas to our Facebook group already before the event. This allows other participants to review their idea, ask questions and possibly to develop the idea further. On Garage48 event, there will be about 30-35 slots for ideas.
• How long is the pitch? On Friday night there are 90 second pitches for each idea, followed by 2-3 questions from audience/mentors. You can have one slide (PDF) to support your pitch.
• How are the ideas selected on the event? Afterwards when ideas are pitched, each participant will choose the idea that s/he wants to work on. Ideas that are able to gather a sufficient team around them will prevail. People who have chosen the ideas that are not able to gather proper team will have join other teams.
• If I present an idea at Garage48, can someone steal it? Of course :) Garage48 has many participants, including journalists, bloggers and tweeters - your idea will not remain a secret. So, if you think you have a top-secret, patentable, Nobel-prize worthy idea, then don't present it at Garage48 ;). On the other hand, if you have an idea that has been sitting at your head for some time, waiting for right time or right people to be put into practice, then Garage48 is a great place and environment for make it happen!
• Is 48 hours enough? Yes and no. 48 hours is more than enough time to take an idea, build a working prototype, alpha or beta service and make it publicly available for users, potential customers. (Unless you are building a nuclear reactor, new drug, a spaceship of something similar, of course). However, to make your prototype, alpha or beta into a viable business, much more work after the event is needed. We encourage (and give preference in selection) to those participants, who show an interest and willingness to continue working on (successful and promising) ideas after the event!
• Is it a startup competition to get funding? Not really. The main idea of the event is to build startup community in Estonia, Baltics and Nordics, find new friends and meet people, build something cool in 48 hours. But it's not so much about winning the prize or getting financing. You might get financing as well, as we have mentors and investors on-site and on-line following the event, but that's not the main goal. Garage48 is mostly an experience of building a new (working) project in 48 hours, meet and work with new people whom you probably would not meet otherwise.
• How big is an ideal team? In our experience, best teams have between 4 and 7 members. Each team should be self-sufficient by having all the main roles (business and product vision, design, programming, marketing, business development, tourism sector specialist) covered.
• Can I buy a domain and set up hosting account before the event? Yes, you can do various preparations for your project unless you start designing or coding. We encourage you to think of the project name, business model, short term and long-term plan etc. But it's not allowed to do any coding work on the project before the Garage48 weekend.
• What happens to the developed products and services after the event? The project built during Garage48 event is owned by the team who built it. So it's up to the teams to decide how do they take it forward. Some ideas are very likely to be developed into successful businesses, others struggle to find a feasible business model and fade away. Organizers are encouraging teams to continue developing the ideas and provide mentorship, but ultimately, the success or failure rests solely with the members of the team.
• Is Garage48 a continuous 48-hour marathon or can I sleep during the weekend too? Sleep is for the weak. (Just kidding). While some teams pulled all-nighters at the last events, most successful teams did take time to get a full 7-8 hour sleep, come back in the morning refreshed and were fully productive during the day. We provide floor space for foreigners in the venue in case you want to save on hotel costs.
• Do you have any videos about the event? Yes, please follow our Youtube channel.
• What if I have paid for my ticket, but can not come to the event? We have a policy, that we do not refund tickets. But you are welcome to find a friend to take your seat (with the same role you registered). Please notify us by e-mail about such request as we have to prepare name badges for every participant.
• More questions? Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for updates or write us at parnu@garage48.org