INFO BELOW IS MUST READ FOR PARTICIPANTS

WHAT TO BRING WITH YOU?

• Positive attitude, open mind and lots of energy!

• Everything you need for a rapid product development. We will have equipment and materials on site, but to be sure we recommend you to bring your own stuff as well. You never know when you need something yourself or if you could help out another team. Sharing is caring :)

• The fact is that, if you build something what really works on Sunday evening, then we will not ask the bits and pieces back - you don't have to break your prototype, the team can take it home and continue working on it.

• This does not apply though for more expensive things - you can not take an oscilloscope with you or set of tweezers etc.
  

• Please take your:

• laptop

• 3-5m power extension cord (as power might be on distance)

• mobile phone

• all chargers

• Optional:

• photo camera to take and share photos

• mattress, sleeping bag (in case you want to sleep at the event)
  
  

PITCHING IDEAS

• Whether you come alone or with a team, you have to present your idea on Friday on stage.

• You have 90 seconds to pitch your idea. Also prepare for questions. 

• You can prepare 1 (one) PDF slide to support your pitch. Please send it kai@garage48.org (Subject: name of your project).

• Prepare a pitch considering these points: 

• Describe shortly your background (10 sec)

• What is the name of the idea (5 sec)

• What's the idea all about? What is the problem your idea solves? (30 sec)

• Technical solution and if there is a revenue model (in case of non-profit idea, how the maintenance and further development costs will be covered?) (30 sec)

• What are you going to build during the 48 hours? Who do you need for the team? (20 sec)

• NB! Practice your pitch to your friends or family before you present! 90 seconds goes really fast!

FORMING TEAMS

• After pitching is over, we will put all the ideas on the wall. Every participant will choose their favorite idea and this is how teams will be formed. If you have all the needed people you are submitted to the competition.

• Average team has about 5 to 7 people and the team should be "balanced" - covering all required roles like necessary engineers, designer, a project manager (team lead/visionary), 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 (probably unable 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. You should start by dividing roles, setting the product vision, customer journey and start working right away.

• It is very important that you have a project manager (team lead) in 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.

• Food and drinks. We provide breakfast, lunch and dinner on Saturday and Sunday. So, you could focus on work and building your product.

• Mentors. We have arranged mentors to work with the teams throughout the weekend. Some of them are more technical, some more business savvy. Be open and ask for their advice and contacts.

• 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.

• MOST IMPORTANT - have fun!
  
  

SUNDAY DEMO NIGHT

• Sunday afternoon 1:00 pm is the deadline. Either you have your product 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 or screen shots - we want a live demo!

• The final demo event starts on Sunday at 5:30pm

• Every team gets 3 minutes for product demonstration (+2 minutes for questions).

• We admit, that the development process is the ultimate importance. But we still have a jury, to evaluate the results and choose the top projects. 
  
  

VENUE & TOOLS

The event will take place at the brand new and shiny Tech Park with advanced FabLabs. We are putting together the stuff to do hardware prototyping. So please describe your idea as specific as possible so we can get most of materials/technologies at the venue.