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It started off with a simple tweet and suddenly I’m organizing a huge startup event in Toronto…

Back in April, I was planning my next trip out to Actuate’s HQ in San Mateo and my attendance at the web 2.0 conference when I came across Startup Weekend Silicon Valley.  I started reading and, while I couldn’t stretch my trip and leave the family for an extra few days to attend, I thought to myself, why hasn’t this event come to Toronto yet?  So I tweeted that same question.

Next thing I knew, the folks at Startup Weekend were in touch to let me know they wanted to do a bunch of Startup Weekends across Canada – covering all the major cities.  Now I’m not going to bore you with all the details that followed.  Let’s just say that I met the Startup Weekend crew in San Francisco at web 2.0 and here I am, organizing Toronto’s first (well, not quite but that’s another story) Startup Weekend.

Frankly, I’m surprised it’s taken so long to get here.  Toronto has a vibrant tech and startup community and given that these weekends are going on all over the world and gaining tons of momentum, why didn’t someone jump on this before me?  Perhaps it’s because there’s a perception that we already have these type of events in this city.  If that’s the case, I’d have to disagree.  While we have many great events in Toronto covering this space, there is nothing following quite the Startup Weekend model.

Here’s my plug for the event… I hope to see you all there so please check out the site, register and come out with all your great ideas and skills.

Startup Weekend recruits a highly motivated group of developers, business managers, startup enthusiasts, marketing gurus, graphic artists and more to a 54 hour event that builds communities, companies and projects.

Founded in 2007 by Andrew Hyde, the weekend is a concept of a conference focusing on learning by creating. It is known for its quick decisions, ‘out of the box’ thinking (oh no, the buzzwords are attacking!), unique facilitation technique and letting the founders show what they can do. The program has already met with success in over 100 cities all around the world.

The participants that attend a Startup Weekend decide what they want to tackle over the weekend and come out at the end with several developed companies or projects. Attendees are responsible for bringing desire and passion to the project and walk out of the room with the task at hand, in a short 54 hours. Sound intense? It is.

Startup Weekends continue to build momentum, happening in cities across the globe every week. Toronto is holding its first Startup Weekend September 24-26, 2010 at Ryerson University. The event will be limited to approximately 100 participants and expects to be sold out quickly.

If you read it here and want to attend, use this discount code (lowpostSWTO) to register for a great price.  Yes, there is a cost – the event is 54 hrs long and covers meals and drinks along with prizes and other great stuff.  Startup Weekend is a non-profit and we only look to cover costs and make the event great.

It’s also worth noting here that Startup Weekend has no rights to any ideas, products or companies that come out of the weekend.  We’re only interested in getting people together to build cool stuff and see where it goes.

Follow @startupwkndTO and search #swtoronto for news and updates about the event.

As a new iPad user, I’m wondering if this device is making me dumb. Don’t get me wrong, I love this device and know that this, and all the “me too” devices that will follow are going to change mobile computing forever. Still, in my digitally obsessed manner, I’ve decided that I want to do all my reading on the iPad. Why not – I have the Kindle app (I don’t like iBooks and already have kindle books that I’ve read on my iPhone), there are various great magazine apps, Press Reader is awesome and it’s a great device for keeping up with blogs. The problem is, there’s so much there, it’s accelerating an issue I was already worried about – the difficulty staying focused on one thing for longer than a few minutes.

Rather than reading through books from a single, beautifully designed device, I can barely concentrate long enough to get through a blog post. This is not a physical design flaw but rather an issue caused by the access to information and other great apps that are sitting there, asking you to go get them.  I continually find myself jumping around from app to app, website to website, checking/sending email, etc.  I’m sure most of you struggle with this all the time, especially at work where you are pulled in multiple directions throughout the day.  Now, imagine that small amount of time you’ve traditionally held onto for dear life, where you can curl up with a good book, being ripped away and replaced with another device, disguised as something to read on, ensuring you are a total slave to technology.

It’s not completely fair to blame this issue on a device as more and more, I find myself somewhat full of panic that there is so much information I want that I certainly can’t waste my time relaxing with a good piece of fiction.  If I’m honest with myself, this issue was percolating before I started using an iPad.  The iPad has just exacerbated this behaviour.

The funny thing is, I’m not sure I’m upset by this new dynamic in my life.  Instead, I feel completely committed to using my iPad for all my reading and finding a way to control my constant urges to access other things on the device.  I don’t need to describe all the benefits of the iPad – there are tons of sites to tell you what you need.  I want to take on the challenge of figuring out the “right” way to interact with my devices, just like the industry/market is learning as it goes.  In this regard, we’re living in a pretty amazing time.