Mobile Hackathon at ʻIolani School This Weekend

When I heard about this weekend's WordCamp Maui event, I figured some people might have other plans for Valentine's Day. Turns out you can also spend Friday, Feb. 13 and Saturday, Feb. 14 at The Sullivan Center at ʻIolani School at a Mobile App Hackathon.

The event, cosponsored by the University of Hawaii at AT&T, challenges participants to design and build apps in just 24 hours. And while the apps can be either web apps or mobile apps, one focus of the hackathon is to create tools for first responders... and to promote AT&T's technology.

While there'll be food, caffeine, and prizes, organizers say the most important part of the event is the opportunity to "meet new people and scout for teammates to work on new or current projects."

The hackathon kicks off at 6 p.m. on Friday with dinner, networking, and "developer dating," which helps participants form teams and develop pitches. By 8 p.m., app ideas must be presented and teams formed in order to be ready for the full-day Saturday program. Participants will gather at 10 a.m. on Valentine's Day for breakfast, then spend the rest of the day designing and building their apps (with a late lunch break at 2 p.m.). Pitches start at 6 p.m., with each team given only three minutes to make the case for their apps.

Judging will equally weight the pitch, the originality of the app idea, and the ultimate functionality of the app. Prizes range from $500 to $5,000 in gift cards, including Best Overall Mobile App, Best Mobile App for Government Services & Resources, and Best Use of AT&T's M2X API.

The hackathon will include mentors to help teams along, including Jason Sewell and Tony Gaskell of Sudokrew, Jon and Kelli Borgonia of Goma Games, Ray Farias of Pointy Hats, and George Lee from Ikayzo. Sewell and Farias are also both instructors with DevLeague.

For more information, visit the AT&T/UH Mobile App Hackathon page on Splash, visit the AT&T Developer Program page on Facebook, or follow @ATTDeveloper on Twitter.