Congratulations are in order–teams are forming to compete for prizes and to hone their hacking and app development skills at the fast-approaching Black Enterprise TechConneXt Summit Oct.12—13 in Santa Clara, California.
HBCU teams made up of juniors and seniors who major in engineering or computer science who have not yet made a commitment to an employer post-graduation are preparing to fly out to Santa Clara to compete in the BE Hackathon hosted by Capital One. Fittingly, the teams will design a personal finance app that targets college students and young professionals.
[RELATED: Young Girls Design an App and Win Black Girls Code Hackathon]
How does one prepare to participate in a hackathon? An article on TechCrunch advises starting with something you’ve already finished; be able to explain exactly what it does and who it’s for; and have a sense of the next steps you need to take.
Read an excerpt of the article below:
The proliferation of organized “hackathons†has been a big story over the past few years. Quite a few developers that I’m friends with see them as a way to keep themselves sharp on their own products and ideas, especially when a different company is the one putting the event on. I recently attended, and judged, a Foursquare hackathon in San Francisco, and saw about 20 presentations from some pros and beginners alike.
Usually the participants hack away on an idea, or series of ideas, over a 24-hour period. During the hacking, teams are built, careers can be made, and new features and companies can be found if people are paying close enough attention. At the Foursquare hackathon, where the participants hacked away on Foursquare’s API, as well as some other sponsors’, I found the things you’d expect at a hackathon — stickers, beer, pizza, and geeks.
After attending quite a few of these hackathons in San Francisco, New York City, Philadelphia, Seattle, Mexico and Israel, I’ve found that this is a great testing ground to get ready for pitching VCs for the product you want to spend all of your time working on. Most of the projects aren’t ready for prime time, but facing judges and an audience with a five-minute presentation is a great way to sharpen your pitch skills.
You can read more at TechCrunch.
The TechConneXt Summit, Black Enterprise’s first annual tech conference, will help to develop a talent pipeline for tech companies in Silicon Valley that are serious about addressing their “diversity problem.†Students will meet with recruiters, go on tours, meet mentors, and hear inspiring speakers who have succeeded in the tech space.
Interested to learn more? Explore the Black Enterprise TechConneXt Summit website here: www.blackenterprise.com/events/techconnext. For a limited time, registration is free to full-time students with valid ID. Don’t miss it! Register today.