Kids' food app wins Startup Weekend Palmerston North

Kids' food app wins Startup Weekend Palmerston North

Palmerston North, New Zealand |

Startup Weekend Palmerston North, the first Startup Weekend held outside a major city centre in New Zealand, has announced its winners for 2012. Startup Weekend Palmerston North was a weekendlong, handson experience where entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs found out if their startup ideas were viable. On average, half of Startup Weekend’s attendees have technical or design backgrounds, the other half have business backgrounds.

Startup Weekend Palmerston North was managed by the BCC, a Palmerston North based business that specialises in taking technology ideas to market. The weekend was sponsored and hosted at UCOL Palmerston North with Massey University and Kiwi Landing pad being the other major sponsors.

Just under half of the 56 participants pitched ideas on Friday night. Those ideas were then narrowed down to ten teams who worked together over the course of the weekend.

Guiding the teams over the weekend was a dedicated staff of mentors and organisers, some travelling from Auckland and Tauranga to help with the event.

The judging panel, comprised of Dean Tilyard, Tracy Thompson, Russell Brebner, Ruth McDavitt and Suse Reynolds, all have substantial entrepreneurial backgrounds. They heard final presentations on Sunday night from all teams, ultimately selecting a supreme winner as well as awarding second place and honourable mention.

“I was blown away by the quality of what was achieved over the weekend it was at the same level as what we've seen come out of Auckland and Wellington. What really stood out and made all the difference was the teamwork.

Teamwork trumps naked skill, and too much ego in a fastmoving high pressure situation is a recipe for failure.

The Palmy crew just got stuck in and worked hard together, which produced excellent results,” said Dave Moskovitz, Global Facilitator, Startup Weekend.

The winners of Startup Weekend Palmerston North 2012 are –
Supreme Winner | $8,000+ prize

What’s 4 Lunch
Team Members | Amy Burell (lead & designer), Chris Cunningham (nontechnical), Gareth Pearce (nontechnical), James Cockle (designer), Justin Scott (nontechnical), Paul Budvietas (developer, technical specialist) and Rochelle Alder (designer)

This idea gets children helping with food preparation using a mobile application and website. It provides video and photos with information about food and the ingredients that go into each recipe. The child can also learn about where a specific ingredient in each recipe originates.

2nd Place & Open Data Prize | $1,250
Friendsafe
Team Members | Kate Reddington (lead & designer), Adrian Parkyn (nontechnical), Daniel Scott (designer), Pravin Daryani (nontechnical), Fleur Verhoeven (designer), John Hennig (developer) and Kim Ross (designer)

The Friendsafe app enables the sharing of a travelers start and end point to improve personal safety. It provides a platform for communication and an emergency feedback alert, which records audio, video and geolocation data to keep people safe.

This app also won the open data prize, worth $1,000. It was awarded for using local open data sources.

Honourable Mention
Little Helper Books
Team Members | Nate Shaw (lead & developer), Abby Kingi (designer), Ben Bell (nontechnical), Lyn Bevin (nontechnical), Owen Mabey (designer) and Victoria Forbes (designer)

Little Helper Books allows parents to create games, apps and ebooks in which their child is a character, to help them deal with difficult situations.

The next startup weekend in New Zealand is in Tauranga, 1416 September. For more information, please visit
their website http://tauranga.startupweekend.org/
ENDS

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