Are you a Hacker, Hipster, Hustler or Humanitarian? Want to co-create tech solutions for refugees in SA?

Following the success of the Techfugees hackathon in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, it's Adelaide's turn in 2017!

Following the success of the Techfugees Hackathons in Sydney and Melbourne in 2015 and 2016, it's finally time for Adelaide to take part in this global initiative!

The Techfugees Adelaide Hackathon will bring together developers, designers, entrepreneurs, marketers, business minds and community members to develop creative tech solutions that focus on improving the lives of refugee families in Australia.

Former refugees who have already settled in Australia will be participating in this event to help teams deeply understand the problems and challenges faced by new settlers. The format of the Hackathon will draw strongly on co-design principals and practices.

Leaders from Adelaide's burgeoning Tech community will mentor teams through the weekend.

We launch and form teams on Friday evening and work together on solutions throughout the weekend until pitch time on Sunday afternoon.

We will continue to update this event page as more details are confirmed including venue, sponsorship and prize information.

Please also keep up to date through our social media pages and devpost profile.

About Techfugees Australia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMCLnWl8Y98

About Techfugees Global

 Moved by the plight of refugees in Europe, a number of technology industry people have formed a voluntary team to create the series of non-profit “Techfugees” conferences, hackathons, and work with a global network of collaborators.

Today there are now over 2,000 members of Techfugees, demonstrating a huge desire amongst the tech community to get involved with this issue.

Our events are entirely non-profit, designed to bring together tech engineers, entrepreneurs and startups together with NGOs and other agencies in order to address the crisis in ways where the technology world can bring its considerable firepower.

Join us online on facebook.com/techfugeesaustralia & twitter @techfugeesaust1 and following the #Hack4Refugees hashtag. For more information on Techfugees Global go to www.techfugees.com

View full rules

Prizes

$33,200 in prizes

First Prize

Business Development sponsorship by Business Model Inc.($10,000)
Web Development & Support by Koolth Web Services ($1,000), Corporate Governance & Accounting services ($4,000) from Aspects of Business Consulting, 5 x day passes for The Hub co-working space ($200), Expo booth & marketing coaching from Entrepreneur Story for Entrepreneur Story 2018 Expo

Second Prize

12.5 hrs of Start-up mentoring by Entrepreneur Story, $4000 of Corporate Governance and accounting services from Aspects of Business, 10 casual day passes and a board room voucher from Little City Studio Co-working space

Third Prize

10 hrs of Entrepreneurship & marketing coaching from Entrepreneur Story - $5,000

People's Choice

Cash prize kindly donated from Techstars Australia

Microsoft Bizspark Award

One year free membership to the Microsoft BizSpark program, giving you access to all Microsoft development and test software including : Azure, Visual Studio, Office and SQL Server.

Adelaide Smart City Studio Award

Entrepreneurship & Mentoring services - Entrepreneur in Residence @ Smart City Studio.

Awarded to the team whose solution better enables the city to meet the needs of refugees.

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Eligibility

Anyone is eligible to participate!

No previous tech experience necessary. 

Bring your passion for change, communication, active listening and learning and hard work.

Requirements

User Stories will be issued a few weeks prior to the event for your consideration.

This will help you prepare your Rocket Pitch (60 seconds) on the Friday night and hopefully build a team. 

Previous Hackathons have used the following topics as a guide:

Problem Statement Themes

Disability access and support
The inability of people with a disability to know about and access support.

Employment
Lack of recognition of qualifications; lack of work references and Australian employment experience.

Entrepreneurship
Lack of ability to access support to become familiar with systems, knowledge and networks to start own business in Australia.

Food security
Lack of income for many asylum seekers and refugees on low incomes is a daily issue for prioritising seeking employment, transport, children’s needs and food

Health
Many refugees and asylum seekers experience chronic illness and yet are unaware of the range of medical services to support them.

Housing
Insecure housing as a result of limited income, overcrowding, exploitation acts as a major barrier to the successful long term settlement for people.

Language
Without English proficiency or access to interpreters, refugees and asylum seekers are disadvantaged yet only some categories of visas are allowed to access the maximum of 510 hours of English classes.

Legal system
People at the time of arrival cannot be expected to know all the elements of Australia’s legal system and may break laws here that did not exist in their home country.

Migration advice
Access to skilled and qualified legal advocates is critical and yet, as a result of demand, is not available to everyone seeking asylum.

Migration hub
Access to services provided by migration hubs are important but transport and time can be a problem.

Qualifications
The lack of recognition of skills and qualifications gained overseas wastes the lives of refugees and asylum seekers as they are unable to work in their area of expertise. Australia’s productivity is also disadvantaged.

Tracing to Family Reunion
The dramatic increase in global migration has led to rising numbers of families being separated along perilous routes through diverse countries

Translating and interpreting
Without access to interpreters, refugees and asylum seekers with limited English are unable to negotiate systems, access services or understand critical information about themselves and yet funding for interpreting services is diminishing and many people are not offered access.

Judges

To Be Confirmed

To Be Confirmed

Judging Criteria

  • Product/Market Fit
    Who is your customer (Refugee/Service Organisation etc)? How well does the product fit the needs of the problem the team chose to tackle? How user-friendly is the technology? Is it a complete solution, or do they still have a long way to go?
  • Potential Impact
    How much impact (quality and quantity) could the solution have?
  • Creativity/Innovation/Wow Factor
    How innovative/creative/unique is the hack? Does the hack employ a new/novel approach to solving the problem?
  • Feasibility & Sustainability
    What are your barriers to entry or user adoption? How are you addressing those challenges? What is your rollout strategy? Is it scalable and self-sustaining?
  • Accomplishment & Learning
    How much did they accomplish in the weekend? Did they demonstrate learning from mentors to help inform a better solution? Did the demo test core assumptions?
  • Team Pitch
    How well did the team explain their solution? How well did the demo communicate the idea?