RI is hosting the first New England-wide Startup Weekend on OCT 15-17th. Bryant University is hosting, and providing a unique FooCamp (bring your tents) environment to practice your startup chops.

Register at the New England Startup Weekend site. There is a big push to get college students, and we want to balance that with experienced tech and business folks who want to get their startup on.

Here is a description of Startup Weekend from their About page, and a good overview video on YouTube (plenty of user generated content from SUW round the world there too).

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. It is an amazing opportunity to connect with other passionate and skilled individuals, and perhaps even find a co-founder or two to transform your idea into reality.

Startup Weekend is a non-profit organization based out of Seattle, WA USA. Startup Weekend’s primary mission is to be the most valuable and influential organization in startup communities around the world. Startup Weeked doesn’t have to teach entrepreneurship in a boring classroom setting, we model it in a fun, interactive, and results driven way. As a result, we have become one of the leading catalysts for startup creation, co-founder dating, and entrepreneurship education in startup ecosystems around the world.

There is currently representation in over 100 cities in over 25 countries for Startup Weekend, and being a resource strapped, bootstrapping startup ourselves, we’ve had to stop counting there. Up to May 2010, we have helped educate over 15,000 entrepreneurs at over 115 events, and launched over 560 new startup ventures. In 2010, we will have at least 60 events around the world, and our goal is 100 for 2011.