Jumpstart your business idea in three days at Startup Weekend Bangor!

Bangor, Maine - Bangor’s first Startup Weekend will be Sept. 19–21, focused on jump-starting companies and networking entrepreneurs.

Startup Weekend Bangor will be held Sept. 19 at Bagel Central, 33 Central St., Bangor, and Sept. 20–21 at the University of Maine’s Foster Center for Student Innovation and the Innovative Media Research and Commercialization (IMRC) Center. Registration is $99 per person; $25 for students. Registration and more information is online at bitly.com/swbangor.

The hands-on, immersive event is part of Startup Weekend Maine, which brings designers, developers, entrepreneurs, and any other community member together to pitch their startup ideas and receive peer feedback. Teams form around the top ideas — determined by popular vote — and spend the remainder of the three days building a business model. Final presentations before a local panel of judges culminate the weekend.

Through the generous support of the UMaine IMRC Center (Innovative Media Research and Commercialization Center) participants will be able to access prototyping labs on campus--and use equipment such as 3D printers, laser cutter, electronics lab, textile machines, and wood shop--for free.

Startup Weekend Portland was held June 13; Startup Weekend Auburn is Nov. 14. The events take their mission from the global grassroots effort Startup Weekends that helps community volunteers organize the 54-hour events to share ideas, form teams, build products and launch startups, according to its website.

The community organizers of Startup Weekend Bangor include Jesse Moriarity and Jennifer Hooper of the Foster Center for Student Innovation; Chuck Carter of Eagre Interactive; Gerry Hall of Emera Maine; UMaine students Silvia Guzman and Michael Kennedy; and Erika Allison, winner of Startup Weekend Portland.

The event is sponsored by the City of Bangor, Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, the University of Maine FCSI and IMRC, Blackstone Accelerates Growth, Maine Technology Institute, the Orono Economic Development Council, and Emera Maine.