Dice to host first annual Mobile Hackathon in Ankeny March 15-16

“If you’re not having fun, you’re doing it wrong.” So reads the slogan of the first annual Mobile Hackathon, hosted by technology staffing firm Dice.com on March 15-16, where tech pros will have a chance to win big—$10,000 in prizes—by putting their creativity to use for mobile applications. The two-day competition will be held at…

“If you’re not having fun, you’re doing it wrong.”

So reads the slogan of the first annual Mobile Hackathon, hosted by technology staffing firm Dice.com on March 15-16, where tech pros will have a chance to win big—$10,000 in prizes—by putting their creativity to use for mobile applications.

The two-day competition will be held at Des Moines Area Community College’s Future Farmers of America Enrichment Center in Ankeny, Iowa. Though the company is based in New York, Dice has a large presence in Urbandale, Iowa.

“Our company has deep roots in Iowa, we wanted to hold the Hackathon here, in a central location with businesses and schools nearby,” said Jonathan Blank, director of public relations at Dice.

Dice hopes that the Hackathon will challenge participants to use product management and development skills. “We have a long tradition of inspiring tech pros to achieve big things in a short amount of time,” Blank said.

A team of five judges will select winners in five categories—Best Overall, Runner-Up, Best Use of the Dice API, Best Student and Best Design—who will receive cash prizes. Judges include Manish Dixit, vice president of engineering at Dice; Nick Parker, senior developer at Zetetc; Dan Shipton, CEO of BitMethod; Jason Mead, developer lead at Dwolla; and Nate Buwalda, consultant at Lean Techniques. 

“We selected the judges based on their association with entrepreneurial companies that are spearheading innovations with mobile applications,” Blank said. “In addition, we looked for varied backgrounds that could cover design, development and strategy.”

Almost 40 professionals and students have registered to participate in the Hackathon so far. Registration is free and open to the public, but will be capped at approximately 70 participants.

“We’re entirely focused on this first Hackathon,” Dixit, one of the Hackathon judges, said. “We believe in this structure for training, networking and brainstorming new ideas, and we want tech professionals to understand how to combine any number of different skill sets together and then apply to mobile development.”

 

Complete rules and resources for Dice’s first Mobile Hackathon can be found on the event website

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

Channels:

Get the latest news and events from Nebraska’s entrepreneurship and innovation community delivered straight to your inbox every Wednesday.