Link to original article

Event called 54 Hours may help launch new software companies

Creative minds in the province will have an innovative forum to share some of their ideas as members of Saint John's ICT community will host an event known as 54 Hours, to be held this weekend at the Delta Brunswick in the Port City.

The Saint John event mirrors similar weekend initiatives that have sprouted up across Canada and the United States in the past couple of years.

Participants get together early Friday evening and pitch ideas, some of which will become actual products by the end of the weekend.

"We're going to conceptualize, create and launch a few software companies in a weekend," said Jason Richard, president of Saint John-based Xentient Solutions, who is one of the organizers.

"On Friday, people will bring in their ideas and present them to a panel," Richard said. "The panel will select some of the ideas to be created on Saturday and Sunday. By Sunday night, we'll launch the software and then we'll incorporate and get a shareholders agreement together on Monday morning."

There is no registration fee, but interested individuals are urged to register at the event's website (www.54hours.com).

Richard said organizers are optimistic the event will be a hit, based on the buzz they've been hearing.

"We want people to just come in and commit to no talk, just action," Richard said. "There's no set agenda. We're just going to follow the energy that's in the room and allow it to dictate the direction we head in.

"There will be a lot of people attending this event - software developers, graphic artists, marketing people, financial experts and legal advisers. I've been getting a lot of positive feedback."

The chances are slim that the event will produce the next Google or Facebook, but Richard said there will be plenty of networking opportunities.

"We're obviously hoping to hit on a big idea here - that would be great - but the most important thing is that it's going to be a fun, high-energy, good networking event where people can work with other people in the industry that may not have had the opportunity to work with before," he said.

"It would be a good event for someone who might have an idea, but doesn't have a software background to get his idea off the ground.

Or a developer who wants to have ownership of a company, but doesn't quite know how to put a software company together.

"The key will be to use all that expertise together to create a successful organization out of each of the ideas."