Tech4Change: Portland Startup Weekend and Mercy Corps host tech competition to save the world

Startup Weekend and global NGO Mercy Corps are hosting a new kind of business competition for Portland’s entrepreneurial community on June 7-9 at the nonprofit’s headquarters in Portland. Meet Tech4Change.

Starting Friday night, the 54-hour competition will give participants a chance to pitch, build and present tech-oriented social enterprise concepts. The crowd will select 12 initial concepts after which teams of designers, developers, business project managers and marketers will be selected from the weekend’s attendees to help build minimum viable products that demonstrate those ideas. By the end of the weekend, the teams will present their new social enterprises to a panel of judges, and at 9 p.m. Sunday night, winners will receive their prizes.

Many investors are also eager to gain access to the “base of the pyramid”–those living on $5 a day or less–a huge market with billions of potential new customers. Because this might be a new target market for many entrepreneurs, attendees will have a chance to learn how to design products and strategies from experts in the field at Mercy Corps, Thoughtworks, and Manifesto.

“We see the T4C event as a fantastic opportunity to showcase the power technology can have on our work,” said Andy Dwonch, Mercy Corps’ senior director of social innovations. “International development practitioners from Mercy Corps will be able to engage with members of Portland’s vibrant entrepreneurial tech community in order to identify new initiatives that could bring significant value to some of the world’s toughest places.

“Tech4Change involves looking at technology as a way to foster greater economic and social development. We’re excited to play a part in that.”

For more information or to RSVP, visit Portland Startup Weekend Tech4Change.

This was a guest post submitted by the organizing team. It read far better than my gibberish.

Published by Rick Turoczy

More than mildly obsessed with the Portland startup community. Founder and editor at Silicon Florist. Cofounder and general manager at PIE. Follow me on Twitter: @turoczy View all posts by Rick Turoczy