Memphis is known for its entrepreneurs, from Clarence Saunders inventing the self-service grocery store to Kemmons Wilson inventing the hotel chain to Fred Smith inventing overnight package delivery.

This weekend some of the city’s best and brightest business minds will gather in hopes of creating their own successful concepts at the second annual Memphis Startup Weekend.

Hosted by LaunchMemphis, Memphis Startup Weekend 2 is set for Friday night through Sunday night at EmergeMemphis, at 516 Tennessee St. It is open to the public and costs $40. The ticket price includes a T-shirt plus all of the weekend’s meals, office supplies and Wi-Fi access – whatever is needed to create a startup business concept.

This year’s event is different than last year’s, event organizers said, because attendees won’t be limited to creating one “official” company like they were at the Memphis Startup Weekend’s inaugural event.

Startup Weekend – formed by Andrew Hyde of Boulder, Colo. – is held in cities throughout the country. Local event organizer Harry Brown said the new format, already used elsewhere, should prove to be beneficial.

“This year we’re really focused on having multiple companies come out of it,” said Brown, who runs his own law practice. “It’s kind of like survival of the fittest. You’re going to want to have multiple people working on an idea so you can have support and you can carry on with it when it goes forward.”

Brainstorming for everyone

Eric Mathews, president of LaunchMemphis and co-founder of Mercury Technology Labs, said the new format is advantageous because each person’s idea will be considered more fully than before.

“That’s an important change because it will actually create what I call ‘full employment’ of the people that are there,” Mathews said. “Last year when we did this we had 100 people there and if their idea wasn’t selected – and we only had one idea move forward – it kind of disheartened some of them and led to attrition over the course of the weekend.”

Mathews said he believes allowing more than one company to move forward should bring more energy to the event – for the attendees and for the ideas they create.

“It also creates a competitive environment for the startups so that they can measure their progress over the course of the weekend against what other people are doing and how they’re progressing with regard to their ideas,” Mathews said. “It’s going to create a much more active and engaging atmosphere.”

Brown said there isn’t a set number of projects that need to emerge, but rather the number will be determined by the attendees. The more ideas forged, the more people can get involved with the crucial decisions for their concepts.

“If everybody wants to go with one idea, we’ll probably encourage people to participate in other ideas because you don’t want to have too many cooks in the kitchen,” Brown said.

‘The next big thing’

Last year the official company to emerge from Startup Weekend was Spynnr, an online community for Ultimate Frisbee enthusiasts. Though the company had momentum coming out of the weekend, it eventually dissolved. Mathews said he wasn’t dismayed to see that happen, because that fate is so common with startup companies.

“Failure is to be expected,” Mathews said. “That’s part of the reason why we got this whole LaunchMemphis initiative with multiple programs going forward. When Startup Weekend comes to your city, lightning strikes. But it can dissipate pretty quickly when you have that type of venture.”

However, one of the finalists from last year, a golf GPS system called nRange, launched following the event and still operates.

This year, 10 ideas already have been suggested on the group’s Facebook site, open only to those who sign up for the event. Mathews said one example was a software program for the logistics and distribution industries, a fitting concept for Memphis.

For Brown, who went to college in Washington and has a background in information technology, bringing Startup Weekend to Memphis was a way to get involved with the local tech community here.

Based on what he’s seen in the four years he’s lived here – and what he knows of the entrepreneurs who have called Memphis home – he has no doubt a great idea is lurking somewhere in the city.

“Do I think there’s a possibility (at Startup Weekend) for the next big thing?” Brown said. “Absolutely.”