Startup Weekend SCV is once again welcoming entrepreneurs, would-be startup CEOs and go-getters for what could be the networking opportunity of the year for Santa Clarita startups.

Each year, the Startup Weekend SCV’s organizers provide a weekend’s worth of informational seminars, workshops and a unique opportunity — a chance to develop that business idea with potential that’s been getting kicked around, but otherwise lacking certain ingredients.

This year, the event is opening its doors at 8 a.m. on Friday November 17, at the University Center at College of the Canyons’ Valencia campus.

“The main things are it’s just a really great event to meet people,” said Dale Fairclough, an organizer who’s also been a past participant experiencing success with a startup, because of the event.

Fairclough is not just helping to organize the event, he’s a big believer in how well it works because he’s seen its results first-hand.

Fairclough and Justin Clark came to the 2015 Startup Weekend SCV, and while the two didn’t end up creating a startup from their project at the event, the two joined a team. From relationships they built at the 2015 event, they launched Whiz Tutor, a web- and app-based company that’s already operating on a national level in the $400 million-plus online tutoring market (according to IbisWorld.com).

Whiz Tutor currently has approximately 900 tutors available through its app and site.

Clark and Fairclough were in need of coders and developers at the 2015 weekend-long meeting of like-minded programmers, engineers, marketers and sales reps, which was punctuated by informative seminars, networking opportunities and, of course, the competition.

“We went there with the sole idea of finding people,” said Clark, who’s now CEO of a company expanding into the Chicago market, “and that worked out very successfully in our favor.”

Once the weekend gets underway, there’s an icebreaker and then the group will hear dozens of pitches from those with ideas.

A fraction of those will become projects, and the participants are broken up into teams, which will then work to see who can make the most viable product in a frenzied weekend of programming and production. The event provides a 24-hour workspace for the truly dedicated to work around-the-clock, if desired, on their project, Fairclough said.

Clark is looking forward to coming back as mentor and organizer of the event, who will be working with the group along with some pretty big names in the tech world, such as Vince Zampella, of “Call of Duty” fame.

Their plan took advantage of one of the two biggest values in attending the event, Clark said.

“There’s two values you can get out of it,” he said. “The first value is, if you have an idea and you don’t know how to launch or where to start to get it off the ground; and the second value is, if you already started working on a project for a startup company and you need to find more help to make it more successful.”

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