Incubation hub and event platform Impact Hub Manila (IHM), the local arm of a shared workspace and global community network headquartered in Austria, has commenced this year’s Impact Hackathon event to showcase innovations made in the local technology scene during the pandemic.
From Aug. 17 to 21, the ‘reverse hackathon’ will be gathering participants for a virtual week-long set of activities that highlight digital strides made for five verticals – climate change, education, food and agriculture, health and wellness, and smart cities. The event is open to all coders and non-coders alike.
During the event, a problem will be posed for every vertical in situations provided by IHM corporate partners. The participating teams would then have to develop minimum viable products or MVPs by the end of the week. The teams would be judged for their solution’s technical viability, integration of enabling technology like AI and Big Data, business viability, scalability, social index, and design and learning stretch.
The winners, which will be announced by week’s end, will have the opportunity to be incubated either by IHM or its partners to support the scaling of their produced MVPs. These teams will also be awarded cash prizes amounting to roughly $100,000, as well as access to IHM’s network of entrepreneurs and experts.
The online hackathon will still run through the traditional 24 hours up to a period of one week similar to the event’s previous iterations of programming marathons. With the announcement of national winners scheduled for August 25, Impact Hackathon 2020 will still be followed by another hackathon by November.
Before the hackathon proper, IHM will be conducting learning sessions led by a roster of industry leaders and entrepreneurs to equip the participants with relevant information before they proceed in building the solutions. The activities will then culminate in the 2050 Fest that will gather all collaborators and participants for panel discussions and the announcement of winners.
The entire event is a component in the Impact 2050 program of IHM, a multi-year plan to create a significant impact to the economy through the development of the country’s startup and innovation ecosystem. In 2019 alone, Impact Hackathon was attended by 80 partners, 300 mentors and jurors, and 1700 participants that generated 186 completed projects.
