Recently a huge event was held by Canadian organizers called #HackMTL which was sponsored proudly by PasswordBox, Google, Facebook and iWeb. This event was open to developers and to no one’s surprise it was sold out barely five hours into the event. After the reception it received, Maeghan Smulders, Heri Rakotomalala, Derek Jen and Greg Whiteside made their own luck when they opened up dozens of spots which got filled instantaneously. This sort of an event has not been since April 2012, when the popular HackTO took place which was arguably the largest hacking event at the time. According to Rakotomalala, Canada has not seen such a large scale event and this was the biggest hacking event by most measures in the country. He further said that the event was open to everyone and the event ought to be a good platform for developers and enthusiasts to show off.
MTL Startup Talent, a local startup activist group that hold’s monthly pitch events, is organizing #HackMTL. Like other hackathons it will give developers a chance to show their talents and creative abilities in a 24-hour window. They can join teams, eat bagels and drink coffee and beer, and ultimately challenge each other for valuable prizes. The events main focus will be on Chrome extensions and Javascript. The event will also hold a crash course on different categories of web development organized by PasswordBox developers.
There are a lot of prizes up for grabs during the event and while judging and award presentations will be done by Google engineer and PasswordBox’s Marc-Antoine Ross. The best team and the winning developer will get themselves a Nexus 7 phone and server cloud hosting. Furthermore, the developer that builds the best security app will have his hands full before he leaves with a Github plan, a Nexus 7 and server cloud hosting. A Google Chromebook laptop will be awarded to the best Google Chrome web extension team.
The idea of the event came from a simple discussion among the organizers in which they discussed the difficulty of finding innovative and creative developers, said Smulders, a PasswordBox employee. “It attracts those people,” Smulders told Techvibes. “Linkedin just had their hackathon and a news post said ‘hackathons are going to be what changes the world,’ because it’s an open-space environment for people to create things while having the drive, excitement and influence of those around them.”
The inclusive nature of such events is something that #HackMTL is playing up. At least 14 women developers will be present at the meet up next week, in an effort to attract more female programmers. “I think being involved in the community and being able to meet others and build things, that’s a really valuable experience,” said Smulders. “The fact that you can be a part of that, I think that’s very valuable for anybody.”
Anyone can waitlist for the event. The organizers claim that a few spots will be up for grabs before the event starts.
Source: TechVibes
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