Last weekend’s TechCrunch San Francisco Disrupt Hackathon was the most exciting yet!
The very word Hackathon might sound foreign to most, but if you have seen David Fincher’s blockbuster The Social Network, you will be impressed by a scene where Mark Zuckerberg participated in a coding competition. I find that a Hackathon in real life is only slightly less intense. Alcohol might bring you inspiration, but energy drinks and beef sticks are more palatable.
To be fair, a Hackathon, which usually spans several days, can be exhausting for participants both emotionally and physically. However, the coding fest is generally held in a more relaxed environment nowadays thanks to the improvement of software and hardware infrastructures. It’s more like a party where programmers can chat freely and have fun.
The popularization of diversified culture around U.S tech circle has brought more female hackers, probably more than Silicon Valley has noticed, as well as ethnic and youth programmers to TechCrunch Hackathon this year. There are different mixes in each group, fathers came with their children, college students with besties, and even total strangers formed their own teams. The varied combination allowed them to come up with more interesting products overnight, anything from useful to hilarious.
We Are Waiting For You At Beijing Wukesong On Oct. 31－Nov. 1
To that purpose, TechCrunch Beijing has added a Hackathon event to its tight agenda. We look forward to seeing you at Beijing Wukesong in one month with the goal of creating something as fantastic as the San Fransisco hackers did last weekend. As the organizer, we have prepared some great prizes for the winners, but please allow us to keep it a secret for now.
Don’t hesitate to register here and finish your October in style with a cool Hackathon. We are ready for the party, and you?
How A Hackathon Is Done
You could start with anything you want, a mature product or a sheet of white paper. I don’t think it is cheating because it is the communication rather than building a finished product that matters. Of course, I am looking forward to Beijing and truly believe that Chinese hackers would to come up with fresh and innovative ideas.
It’s Not All About Product Demo
A total of 165 teams pitched their projects at TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon this year. The hours-long demo time was filled with concise speeches and presentations, and there’s no ambling talks nor awkward silent intervals. It is more like a show for programmers to display their thoughts, ideas and power to execute.
I think that’s exactly what Chinese programmers need, a stage to show off their talents. Here, you don’t have to worry about the imperfections of your products or unskilled presentations. As long as you got the guts to stand on that stage, you deserve the title of a true hacker.
TechCrunch Hackathons
TechCrunch is an experienced organizer of dozens of Hackathon events, which have give birth to star startups, like GroupMe, which was acquired by Skype with $85 million USD in 2011. By holding a similar hacker day in China, we hope to spread the coding culture here. When I saw two kids – less than ten years old – talking about their ideas onstage confidently, I had a hankering to see the same scene here in China. Programming is not an exclusive talent of geniuses and professionals, but a natural response for modern people who want to to solve the problems encountered in their daily lives.
Want to participate? Sign up right now!
For individual : http://tcbj-hackathon-en.eventdove.com
For group : http://tcbj-hackathon-g-en.eventdove.com
