[iqster]

I attended startupweekend in nyc recently and enjoyed myself thoroughly! That event also included a kid pitching an idea (this kid was white). That idea was selected but I believe no one joined the team until day 2 (Saturday). I did find this surprising because the idea was decent. On the morning of day 2, the organizers made an announcement if people were still looking for a team, the kid's team was "open". A few people answered the call and that's great because the kid's team ended up winning one of the three special prizes - kudos to the kid and his team!

Why the lack of support? I suspect it might be because other participants are looking to build a network rather than work on the next Facebook.

Also the idea person becomes the effective leader of the team. I'm not sure how well a kid would manage a motley troop of developers+business people+designers. From my experience, most adults would have trouble with this task :-p

[Tichy]

Maybe people were just not in the mood for working with a kid. Not saying it can't be fun or successful, but perhaps most attendees had something different in mind.