ProtoHack Meetup, Nov. 15th @ Beer Nest II

[Crazy_Mike]

Hello everybody,

Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween celebration the other day!  My name is Mike from ProtoHack (www.protohack.org) and I’m honored and excited to bring ProtoHack to Chengdu, a city full of culture, history, awesome food, and most importantly, inspiring and driven entrepreneurs!

Now, you might be wondering, what is ProtoHack anyway? Please sit back and allow me to elaborate below.. for a really really long time…

ProtoHack, founded in 2014 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, is the world’s first code-free hackathon for non-technical entrepreneurs and product enthusiasts. A jam-packed 12-hour event to unleash participants’ creative energy through leveraging prototyping tools, drag and drop editors, mockups and/or wireframes before visually demonstrating and pitching their ideas on stage in front of investors, developers, product managers and UX designers. At the end of the day each team will walk away with a prototype, a product pitch, market validation, expert feedback, brand-new connections and even awesome prizes (top 3 teams) to take their ideas or products to the next level all without writing a single line of code.

We currently have 15 cities active worldwide, including 10 from the US and 5 from the rest of the world:

• San Francisco
• Seattle
• Los Angeles
• New York City
• Boston
• Portland
• San Diego
• Austin
• Chicago
• Houston
• Vancouver
• London
• Athens
• New Delhi
• Chengdu

The following links will take you to our website and to videos hosted on Youku that can save you a little bit of reading… so once again please sit back and enjoy!

Our Website:

• http://protohack.org/

• http://protohack.org/events/protohack-chengdu/

Event Highlights & Interviews:

• ProtoHack San Francisco: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTM1OTYwNjEzNg==.html

• ProtoHack New York: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTM1OTYwNzAwOA==.html

If you have a fast internet connection, please get the high quality version of the above highlight videos:

• ProtoHack San Francisco: http://pan.baidu.com/s/1sjqtyyD

• ProtoHack New York: http://pan.baidu.com/s/1mg8K0h6

Popular Demo Tools Used During ProtoHack Events:

• Top 7 Features of Proto.io: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTM2MDcxNjIwNA==.html

• InVision: Interactive prototyping: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTM3MTg5NzYxMg==.html

• Balsamiq Mockups 3 Intro: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTM3MTkwMzk5Mg==.html

Teams Bringing Their Ideas to Life:

• Day in the life of 4 ProtoHack teams as they make their ideas a reality: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTM3MjEwNTE4NA==.html

Pitch Presentations:

• Tab-Z’s Presentation – ProtoHack San Francisco August 23 2014: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTM3MjExNzQzNg==.html

• Habitual’s Presentation – ProtoHack San Francisco August 23 2014: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTM3MjExNTI1Ng==.html

• CliqueIn’s Presentation – ProtoHack San Francisco August 23 2014: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTM3MjExNDU2MA==.html

Keynote Speech:

• New York – November 15, 2014: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTM3MjExMTk5Ng==.html

In addition to the above materials, I also uploaded some photos from some of our past events to the following cloud storage locations:

Event Photos:

• http://pan.baidu.com/s/1hqwHsvM

• http://pan.baidu.com/s/1gd4kVJl

• http://pan.baidu.com/s/1bn7aSr1

• http://pan.baidu.com/s/1eQvz2i2

• http://pan.baidu.com/s/1c07ENyK

• http://pan.baidu.com/s/1c0mGkPM

If, for some unearthly reason that only extra-terrestrial beings can explain, that our website is down and all the links above failed, please do give the following pdf documents a chance..

• ProtoHack Introduction: http://pan.baidu.com/s/1bn8wOCf

• Event Agenda: http://pan.baidu.com/s/1c06sTCc

At this point, maybe you are wondering…is it really remotely possible in this universe to even fantasize building web or mobile applications or starting tech companies without first learning how to code? Well, these 2 articles, written by 2 of our ProtoHack founders Cole and Blake, will tell you that the answer is definitely a “yes”:

• http://protohack.org/no-i-dont-wanna-learn-to-code-and-thats-okay/

• http://protohack.org/prototype-first-code-second/

To quote Blake in the second article:

“Imagine a world where non-technical entrepreneurs can quickly and efficiently take the idea they’ve been holding onto for months and have a place where they can build out a functioning prototype and start pitching their idea around to local groups and market validation and user testing without having to find someone technical? Prototyping allows you to do just that.”

Hopefully by now you’ve already gotten some good ideas about what ProtoHack is and how we rock & roll and all that good stuff… next up, please allow me to elaborate a little bit about how exactly we’re gonna make it happen right here in the city of Chengdu..

First and on the top of the list we’re looking for a place to host the very first ProtoHack Chengdu (http://protohack.org/events/protohack-chengdu/) as well as the Non-Technical Entrepreneurs Meetup (http://www.meetup.com/protohack-chengdu/). We are excited that through help of a friend, early next week we’ll be meeting with a potential venue sponsor, and in the meantime any suggestions from everybody here on ChengduLiving forum will be tremendously helpful to us..

This document details our Venue Specs: http://pan.baidu.com/s/1sjrFoXB

While seeking the venue sponsor, we are also looking for the following:

• Keynote speaker

• Product mentors

• Pitch mentors

• Judges

• Sponsors/Partners

Please refer to these documents for specific information:

• Keynote Speaker: http://pan.baidu.com/s/1i3hgphz

• Product Mentor and Pitch Mentor: http://pan.baidu.com/s/1i3tr3yH

• Judge: http://pan.baidu.com/s/1jGJDWfs

• Judging Form: http://pan.baidu.com/s/1mg0CUU0

• Sponsor Information: http://pan.baidu.com/s/1eQGyo5G

Any tips or advice that you guys could offer us, or any questions or feedback on ProtoHack would all be greatly appreciated and please reach us via email at [email protected] or connect me on Wechat at mikex7 so I can invite you to join our ProtoHack Chengdu Wechat Group where you’ll be kept updated on our latest happenings while interacting with other folks in the group that are interested in ProtoHacking.

Thank you so much, Charlie, for providing us with this wonderful forum to get the message out to folks here in Chengdu!

[Crazy_Mike]

Here are some photos from our past events that I’d like to share with everybody here 🙂 So you’ll get a sense of what it looks like from a camera’s perspective 🙂

 

 

Attachments:

You must be logged in to view attached files.

[Crazy_Mike]

Thanks to the wonderful Beer Nest bar, our first ProtoHack meetup event http://www.meetup.com/protohack-chengdu/events/226536123/ now has a place to call home..   and our first meetup is scheduled for November 15th from 7:30 – 9:30..  Our topic for the first meetup is “Prototype Your Idea First, Code It Second” and it will center around the importance of prototyping and visually communicating your app idea through leveraging prototyping tools before actually digging into the code..  anyone is welcome to attend the event to learn and experience how focusing on the idea is critically important and how easy-to-use prototyping tools can drastically help you shape your idea before writing a single line of code ..  perfect attendees include:

Frontend Developers
Product People/UX Designers
Business People / Non-Technical Entrepreneurs
Marketers
Students
English Learners
Developers looking for ideas and inspirations
General networking

[Crazy_Mike]

Today we’ve worked out the exact event agenda for the ProtoHack meetup coming up next week.. Upon obtaining advice from some entrepreneurs, we’re making the meetup a jam-packed 2 hour event with education, inspiration, networking and more. See the following event agenda for details:
Event Agenda

Before 7:30 PM (If you arrive early): Free talk with us or anyone else that might be there

7:30 PM – 7:35 PM (5 Mins): Everyone gives a 15-20 second brief self-introduction (can be anything you’d like to share with us)

7:35 PM – 7:45 PM (10 Mins): Mike introduces ProtoHack and its mission in China as well as the December 27th main event

7:45 PM – 7:50 PM (5 Mins): Audience Q&A regarding ProtoHack

7:50 PM – 8:05 PM (15 Mins): Guest Speaker gives talk

8:05 PM – 8:10 PM (5 Mins): Audience Q&A following the talk

8:10 PM – 8:20 PM (10 Mins): 1st round idea pitch: everyone who wants to obtain feedback on their idea gives a 20-30 second pitch

8:20 PM – 8:35 PM (15 Mins): Audiences give feedback on ideas following the 1st round pitch

8:35 PM – 8:50 PM (15 Mins): 2nd round idea pitch: everyone who participated in the 1st round pitch gives a more detailed 1-minute pitch (provides more information regarding the idea)

8:50 PM – 9:05 PM (15 Mins): Audiences give feedback on ideas following the 2st round pitch

9:05 PM – 9:30 PM (25 Mins): General networking (feel free to stand up, change seats, exchange cards, make friends, share ideas, recruit talents or discuss business opportunities, etc. )

After 9:30 PM: Feel free to stay and continue networking or talk to us about anything ProtoHack related or anything else on your mind

Please stay updated on ProtoHack upcoming events via Wechat group by adding “mikex7” or scan the following QR code:

 

[Charlie]

This sounds really cool. The tl;dr version of this is: it’s an entrepreneurship meet up for technology-related endeavors that do not involve coding.

[Crazy_Mike]

Hi Charlie,

Thank you so much for changing the title of this post to a more proper and easier to understand one, and also thank you so much again for agreeing to be our speaker for ProtoHack’s very first meetup here in Chengdu coming up this Sunday evening at Beer Nest.

For anyone interested in learning more, please definitively go to http://www.meetup.com/protohack-chengdu/events/226536123/ or post your questions or suggestions here. I’m always here to help you get a better understanding of ProtoHack and our events.

[Charlie]

Crazy_Mike wrote:

Thank you so much for changing the title of this post to a more proper and easier to understand one, and also thank you so much again for agreeing to be our speaker for ProtoHack’s very first meetup here in Chengdu coming up this Sunday evening at Beer Nest.

For anyone interested in learning more, please definitively go to http://www.meetup.com/protohack-chengdu/events/226536123/ or post your questions or suggestions here. I’m always here to help you get a better understanding of ProtoHack and our events.

No problem Mike, I look forward to it. For anyone interested in checking it out, I am doing a quick presentation on WordPress, specifically for those who do not have any experience writing code.

[Crazy_Mike]

We’ve just confirmed that Mike from Walnut (http://www.walnut.im/), a co-working space in Chengdu will be joining us this Sunday as our 2nd speaker, to talk about “The meaning of community inside co working”. We’re in the process of obtaining his photo and bio, and we will update the meetup page accordingly.

To summarize, we will have 2 speakers for ProtoHack Chengdu’s very first meetup this Sunday evening at Beer Nest 2:

•    Charlie – will talk about leveraging the powerful WordPress to make a modern website with it if you can’t code.

•    Mike – will talk about the meaning of community inside co working.

After they both have spoken, we will have30-second idea pitch opportunities for anyone who wants to practice his idea pitch and obtain some feedback afterwards. Finally we will have a free talk / network session before calling it a night. This event is free of charge and open to anyone interested. And to be clear, it’s at Beer Nest 2, which is close to the Tongzilin Subway Station.

[Crazy_Mike]

We have updated the event agenda for Sunday evening’s meetup upon Charlie and Mike joining us as speakers, and this will be a super jam-packed 2 hour event now 🙂
Updated: Event Agenda – Sunday, Nov – 15

•  Before 7:30 PM (If you arrive early): Free talk with us or anyone else that might be there

•  7:30 PM – 7:35 PM (5 Mins): Everyone gives a 15-20 second brief self-introduction (can be anything you’d like to share with us)

•  7:35 PM – 7:40 PM (5 Mins): We introduce ProtoHack and its mission in China as well as the December 27th main event

•  7:40 PM – 7:45 PM (5 Mins): Audience Q&A regarding ProtoHack

•  7:45 PM – 8:05 PM (20 Mins): Charlie talks about Web Production, specifically leveraging the powerful WordPress platform, and how to make a website with it if you can’t code

•  8:05 PM – 8:15 PM (10 Mins): Audience Q&A following the talk by Charlie

•  8:15 PM – 8:35 PM (20 Mins): Mike talks about the meaning of community inside co-working

•  8:35 PM – 8:45 PM (10 Mins): Audience Q&A following the talk by Mike

•  8:45 PM – 8:50 PM (5 Mins): Business or product idea pitch: anyone who wants to participate can get on stage and do a up to 30-second idea pitch (any idea is welcome, small or big, tangible or virtual, business or product, etc.)

•  8:50 PM – 9:05 PM (15 Mins): Audiences & speakers give feedback on ideas following the pitch

•  9:05 PM – 9:30 PM (25 Mins): General networking (feel free to stand up, change seats, exchange cards, make friends, share ideas, recruit talents or discuss business opportunities, etc. )

•  After 9:30 PM: Feel free to stay and continue networking or talk to us about anything ProtoHack related or anything else on your mind

[niklas]

Perhaps slightly off topic but where can more info about Walnut be found? Might be interesting for people going to read a bit about in beforehand too. Been searching a bit but can’t find it online. Seems like this co-working space opened in August, but I can’t find a website for it or anything.

[Charlie]

niklas wrote:

Perhaps slightly off topic but where can more info about Walnut be found? Might be interesting for people going to read a bit about in beforehand too. Been searching a bit but can’t find it online. Seems like this co-working space opened in August, but I can’t find a website for it or anything.

I’m not sure what the website address is, but it is open now. We have a podcast that we recorded with Mike (the proprietor and guy who is speaking at the ProtoHack event on Sunday) which will be published in the coming weeks. I will ask him and see if I can get the URL to share here.

[Charlie]

niklas wrote:

Perhaps slightly off topic but where can more info about Walnut be found?

Now that I gathered this I notice that it was posted above: Walnut.im

[Crazy_Mike]

Thank you Charlie, yes that’s the website which I posted earlier. And for anyone interested, it’s at: 成都市金牛区蜀西路42号

[Author]

Posts