Startup Weekend in Atlanta kicked off last night with over 116 participants, and 48 pitches, eventually forming into 18 teams. The concept behind Startup Weekend is to start something up – a concept, business, or idea, over the weekend. It’s centered around technology, with people dividing themselves into categories like: “business folk”, “designers”, “developers”, and other niches. Yup, there was a technology lawyer, there too.

What kinds of ideas are being worked on right now?

I took quick notes on all the pitches, and here are some trends:

• Crowdsourcing – ideas pitched on crowd-sourced recipes, carpooling, ticket/event booking, and educational ideas
• Gamification – making a game out of education, fantasy sports (fantasy daily sports),
• Photo sharing – and even photo manipulation around faces (think: a light version of photoshop to make you look sexy)
• Jobs and finding talent – ideas were pitched on eliminating recruiting
• Online Dating – and to an extent, verifying who is who, and finding folk through your social network

The micro trend of the night (in my opinion) was: “making something sexy” – be it “sexy discounted cash flows” (best pitch of the night), your own photo of yourself, and even one team wanting help making their Ruby on Rails app sexy!

We’re happy to be a part of this event, as sponsors, along with friends Mailchimp, Pardot, Appcelerator, Peer1 Hosting, and even Microsoft to name a few!

Stop by our table and say hello, if you’re around!