(by Florence Toffa)  I was at the startup weekend organized by the Global Entrepreneurship Week Ghana team on November 18th.

It was an intense 54 hour event which focused on building a Web or mobile application which could form the basis of a credible business over the course of a weekend. The weekend brought together people with different skill-sets – primarily software developers, graphics designers and business people to develop selling business ideas and applications. It was interesting for me to see that, out of the eight teams that presented their ideas to the panel of Judges (Richard Tanksley – MEST, Jim Kaubisch – MEST, Ekow Spio-Garbrah – former CEO of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation), six were mobile apps.

The eight participating teams were:

• GAS’YO! – Know the LPG filling station that is closest to your home and where LPG is till available to refill your empty LPG cylinders
• Dropifi – A Web messaging platform that turns your contacts into loyal customers.
• Maiddle – A Web service for matching housekeepers to potential clients.
• Identifi – A mobile app that identify your location and helps you get to your destination.
• Panic-eye – A single key alert activity app which wants to be the future of 911.
• DigiDoc – A Web application that will be used by doctors in analyzing patient X-rays and scans everywhere leading to prompt response that will help save lives.
• Djumah – A professional networking platform that leverages the power of social networking of both employers and job seekers to identify the most trusted and qualified candidates.
• TeamTaunt – A social element of sports that creates perhaps the most passion among sports fans but that is not accurately tackled by the various sports network is fan rivalry.

Dropifi won the first prize. This application also provides a dashboard to businesses to analyze information, comments or feedback from website visitors for easy and quick response. Messages received on the dashboard provided to the company are analyzed for both negative and positive feedback.

Maiddle won the second place. Former MWG trainee David Lartey was part of the team who developed the project.

Third place went to Djumah. Victoria Arkorful, Alloysius Attah, and Joseph Monney, who developed their mobile web skills with MWG’s second training formed the team.

I was glad I spent my weekend talking and interacting with these entrepreneurs. It was a great event and I am looking forward to seeing most of them at the Mobile Entrepreneurs congress, organized by Mobile Web Ghana, on 10th December 2011.