Starting Friday, March 1, is the third Spokane Startup Weekend. We described it in a Spokesman.com story last week.

Here's the notable update. Washington State University is backing the idea for its students. The school will pay the total entry fee for up to 70 WSU students from across the state.

The general student fee is $55. For others, it's $85 (and includes meals over the Friday-Saturday period). Any other student from area schools is also invited to register.

The WSU “scholarship” plan comes from a grant from the WSU CougParents Program made to the WSU Spokane student government. Students can take advantage of that registration option at http://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0C4BAAA929AA8-startup.

Notably, that link says only 25 slots have been taken. That means 45 remain to be filled at no cost.

Spokane's next Startup Weekend goes live March 1 to March 3, at the WSU Health Sciences Building. Today's SR had a story covering the event, plus highlighting three firms that have sprung to life from prior weekend boot camps.

The term Startup Weekend is trademarked, created by partners who launched the idea on the East Coast several years ago. It's since turned into a national and international for-profit effort. There have been hundreds of Startup Weekends in the past two years, from St. Louis to Lithuania.

Check out the video to get an overview. The link above also gives information on how to register.