Startup Weekend Oman

Had a great time at Startup Weekend Oman today, met some very enthusiastic entrepreneurs who were looking to launch their own companies.  The teams will be presenting the top ideas to the judging panel on Friday, and no matter the outcome I think everyone learned a lot and made some great connections.  I enjoyed the interaction with the mainly young Omanis who all had great energy and some great ideas, whether they create companies out of the ideas from this startup weekend or use the connections to start companies in the future, it was time well spent. 

I presented the Bizspark program for the technology startups at the weekend and also covered some of the simple tools that any business can use to set up their web presence using the Microsoft web platform and open source applications.  For those that were there or are interested, I’ve included the links and the presentation below.

Bizspark for Technology Startups: Bizspark Overview presentation 

Microsoft.com/web – the place to start for everything web from Microsoft (All the tools, SEO help, Applications, and the WebsiteSpark program …)

including the new WebMatrix –Simple, Easy to use tool for building websites

I saw a lot more non-technology companies presented as well and showed the recently released WebMatrix tool to them for how to set up a simple blog site, ecommerce site or many others based on open source applications in the Web App Gallery and get hosting for those sites.  Even if you’re not creating a web company, like the startup planning to sell Omani dates, you’ll still need a website to promote yourself and you never know when you’ll send up selling dates online :)

Overall a very good event set up by Aziza and company, looking forward to bringing Startup Weekend to Dubai in the near future.

Congratulations to Graphix, the winners of Startup Weekend Oman

Update: Adding pictures from the event and the winners