To celebrate the National Civic Day of Hacking, we invite everyone who wants to make a difference for their community to join us at the annual Houston Hackathon! This is a “civic” hackathon, focused on ideating, designing, and developing both policy-based and tech solutions to some of Houston’s greatest challenges. Project stakeholders will be there from the city, local organizations, and Houston's impact ecosystem!
We envision a more equitable, inclusive, and sustainable economy, where people are empowered with the skills, capacity, and resources they need to take action. We invite you to be a part of this vision by participating in this annual opportunity to develop systemic and transformative solutions for Houston – solutions that are rooted in local communities so that they are as diverse as Houston, and work for ALL of Houston.
Learn more about Impact Hub Houston at https://houston.impacthub.net and the Code for Houston initiative at https://codeforhouston.org
Requirements
Please feel free to tackle a new challenge, try a new approach to a challenge you've worked on before, or bring a solution you're currently working on and want to recruit some help for. You don't need to have a finished prototype by the end of the week, but please make sure to work on your idea/solution Pitch Presentation. You can use this template to guide you through developing your solution and presentation for submission: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/10SQOx-6oWlolidW6kMj2MmJEOGUMokADWDysCIh-dNs/edit#slide=id.g92393792e1_0_40
For those interested in working on a solution for the cash prize:
The Business Ecosystem Alliance for Minorities and Women (BEAMW: https://www.beamw.org) was formed by many of the 86+ organizations and entrepreneurial ecosystem stakeholders that participated in the Mayor's Women and Minority Business Task Force, founded and led in 2018-2019 by former Council Member Amanda Edwards. BEAMW works to address the most critical needs of minority- and women-owned businesses (MWBs), including connecting them with the relevant organizations and resources to help them strengthen their strategies, skills, operations, and networks to successfully establish and grow their businesses, create new jobs, and uplift their communities. BEAMW needs a portal that can make it easier for entrepreneurs to find and access the organizations, programs, and resources that can best help them with specific challenges at various stages of their journey and guide them along the support pipeline as they grow. We are offering a $250 cash prize for the best solution proposed to address this challenge, with a potential follow-on prize of $750 to develop a beta version that can be embedded into the existing website so we can start gathering data on how well the solution works and how we might improve upon it.
Prizes
$5,350 in prizes
Impact Hub Houston Global Connect Membership
(3)
To help the winning teams continue making progress on their solutions, each team will receive a 3-month complimentary Global Connect Membership to Impact Hub Houston for up to 3 team members!
BEAMW Business Support Portal
The Business Ecosystem Alliance for Minorities and Women (BEAMW: https://www.beamw.org) was formed by many of the 86+ organizations and entrepreneurial ecosystem stakeholders that participated in the Mayor's Women and Minority Business Task Force. BEAMW works to support minority- and women-owned businesses (MWBs) and serve their most critical needs, including helping MWBs navigate and connect with the organizations and programs that can meet them where they are and help them strengthen and grow their businesses to create new jobs and uplift their communities. BEAMW is in need of a portal that makes it easier for entrepreneurs to connect with the organizations, programs, and resources that can best help them with specific challenges at specific stages in their journey, and prepare them to "graduate" to others along the support pipeline as they grow. We are offering a $250 cash prize for the best solution proposed to address this challenge, with a potential follow-on prize of $750 for a beta version that can be embedded in the existing website to start gathering data on whether the solution works and how we might improve upon it.
Leadership Meetings & Stakeholder Support
(3)
The winning teams will have the opportunity to meet with relevant Innovation Ecosystem leaders and Challenge sponsors to discuss their solutions and explore paths to pilots and/or implementation.
People's Choice
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
Judges
Darrell Malone
Founder, National Police Data Coalition
Grace Rodriguez
Executive Director, Impact Hub Houston
Jesse Bounds
Director of Innovation / City of Houston
Jie Wu
Assistant Director, Analytics & Evaluation / Harris County Department of Economic Equity & Opportunity
Brandy Guidry
Pearland Innovation Hub
Judging Criteria
-
Potential
How effectively could this solve the stated challenge or need? How well will it serve Houston? -
Impact
How big is the challenge that the solution addresses? How many people will the solution help? How diverse of populations will it help? -
Viability
Can this solution be reasonably implemented? Are there resources already in place, or easy to secure, to continue developing and strengthening this solution and fulfill its potential impact? Will many people be able to access and adopt it? -
Progress
How far did the team get? Was the challenge well-researched and the solution well-designed? Were they able to create a process map or prototype?
Questions? Email the hackathon manager
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