The Lake Champlain Chamber produces HackVT, an annual 24 hour hackathon, as part of it’s mission to develop, attract, and retain a talented workforce and support business growth. HackVT provides developers from local businesses the opportunity to network and showcase their talent through friendly competition.
The 7th Annual HackVT competition is right around the corner! On October 13th and 14th approximately 100 participants will come together at Green Mountain Power‘s Inspire Space for 24 hours of coding. Teams will compete for cash prizes and have the opportunity to take home other items from quickfire challenges and raffles.
Hackers working hard in Green Mountain Power’s Inspire Space at HackVT 2016. “Work hard and be cool to all people.”
What’s a Hackathon?
A hackathon is a gathering where programmers form teams and code intensely over a short period of time in an attempt to develop or learn something new. Hackathons are a chance for developers to work on something outside of their daily responsibilities and they often focus on solving a problem or working with specific data. The theme for HackVT 2016 was Education and developers used local and national data to develop apps that were then judged by a panel of experts using a range of criteria.
What’s the point?
Can a team really develop a usable app or technology in 24 hours? No, not usually, but that’s not the point. While hackathons sometimes produce applications that turn into businesses, the real value of a hackathon is the opportunity that it provides to coders, local businesses, and local government. The hackathon is a chance to get highly talented developers together in the same space to work collectively – and semi-competitively – on solving a problem. If viable solutions are created that’s great, but the networking, learning and new tech discoveries are the most valuable asset of the hackathon. Even if an app isn’t created, hacking can provide critical insight into new technologies, new market opportunities, and efficiencies or service improvements to local government. Additionally, HackVT provides local businesses an opportunity to recruit talent and have the data they collect on a daily basis analyzed.
Hackers take a break from coding to win some prizes during one of the quickfire challenges at HackVT 2016.
What’s going on this year?
This year’s theme is Undiscovered Vermont! Everyone knows about Vermont’s maple syrup, fall foliage, beer and world class skiing – but do they know about our semiconductor, spatial analytics and puppeteering industries? What about where to find secret caves, amazing barbecue, and locations to view the Northern Lights? What about foot traffic, snowfall, tourism, emergency response, road maintenance, wildlife movement, and business and job growth patterns?
For this year’s HackVT theme we’re asking teams: What can you discover about our State and how can you communicate it in a valuable way? What can you discover about our landscape, demographics, economy, government, and environment, and how can you provide access to that information through an application that provides value in Vermont and beyond? Come join us at HackVT and create tools to explore the ecosystem through geospatial data, get a new perspective and build an app to share your story with the rest of the community.
Team Cadet Coders, one of the 2016 finalists, show off their big check and happy smiles!
Are you interested in registering for this FREE event? The registration deadline is this Saturday, October 7. Register here today!
The Lake Champlain Chamber wants to thank the following Platinum Sponsors:
Silver Sponsors:
General Sponsors:
