About Next Week’s SXSW Hackathon

From Tuesday March 13 through Wednesday March 14, the 5th annual SXSW 24 Hour Hackathon will bring together hackers, creators, makers, and coders to converge to solve problems, create new tools, and push the boundaries of existing tech across entertainment media.

After receiving hundreds of applications, we’ve narrowed the field to the top 120 hackers. It’s going to be fun. While the field is mostly set, we’re still reviewing all new applications. Apply here.

“When you think of SXSW, depending on who you are you either think of the best new music, technology, or movies,” said Travis Laurendine. “As a polymath myself, I co-created the SXSW Hackathon to be the blender where all of the elements of SX are united as one and the incubator to give the winning teams SXSW itself as their initial and very fertile testing ground for real world users.”

“This year as the ultimate nod to the importance of innovation at the intersection of technology and entertainment, we have some of the most valuable companies in the country sponsoring and sending engineers to help participants build things for artists and their consumers to use,” Travis continued. “I can’t wait to see what these super star developers build on these consumer platforms that translate to over $1 trillion in market cap. Especially when they see what’s in the new sandbox that Capitol Records is bringing into the mix and the other music, film and API surprises we have waiting for them!”

At HackerNoon, we’re proud to be a media sponsor for such an exciting event. We’ll have an area at the event, where you can tell us your tech story. Can also DM me. Looking forward to meeting you there :-)

2018 SXSW Hackathon Mentors

Proud to announce the mentors for the Hackathon and Incubator are:

• Lily Chen (Universal)
• Gerome Vanherf (Leansquare/ Wallfornia Music Tech)
• Ty Roberts (Ty Roberts Innovation)
• Danny Lee (YG Entertainment)
• Andee Gardiner (Founders Embassy)
• Dano Leman (Reven8te/Ticket Galaxy)
• Louise-Marie Marguet (Emojam).

2018 SXSW Hackathon Judges

The judges* for Hackathon are:

• Tuhin Roy (Universal Music)
• Ryan Walsh (Floodgate)
• Tiffany Zhong (Gen Z Whisperer)
• Jeremy Gardner (AUSUM Ventures)
• Waco Hoover (XLIVE)
• Jeff Liebenson(Liebenson Law)
• David Sikorski (Earmilk)
• Lucy Guo (Scale API)
• David Smooke (HackerNoon)

*previously announced in Join Us at The SXSW 24 Hour Hackathon.

2018 SXSW Hackathon Sponsors

USAA. USAA, known for its innovative approach to bringing banking and insurance to its members, is joining us for the SXSW Hackathon as the presenting sponsor.

Amazon Alexa. Alexa is a cloud-based voice service from Amazon. Alexa is the brain behind Amazon Echo and other Alexa-enabled devices.

Amazon Web Services. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a secure cloud services platform, offering compute power, database storage, content delivery and other functionality to help businesses scale and grow. Millions of customers are currently leveraging AWS cloud products and solutions to build sophisticated applications with increased flexibility, scalability and reliability.

Capitol Music Group. Capitol Music Group (CMG) is comprised of Capitol Records, Virgin Records, Motown Records, Blue Note Records, Astralwerks, Harvest Records, Capitol Christian Music Group, and CMG’s independent distribution division, Caroline.

ConsenSys. ConsenSys is a global formation of technologists and entrepreneurs building the infrastructure, applications, and practices that enable a decentralized world.

Cloudinary. Manage web and mobile media assets with Cloudinary, the leading cloud service: image and video uploa

d, storage, manipulation, optimization, digital asset management and delivery.

Additional partners are Devpost and HackerNoon. :-)

Until next time, don’t take the realities of the world for granted.

Kind Regards,

David Smooke

P.S. While the field is mostly set, we’re still reviewing all new applications. Apply here.

P.P.S. Here are SXSW panels and events I’m excited about:

• How to Create Necessary, Targeted, Authentic Media
• Crunch by Crunch Fest
• Two-Day Crypto Summit Coming to SXSW 2018, Featuring Women in Blockchain Conference — ‘New Girls on the Block.’
• The Art of Inclusivity in a Politically Divided US
• How to Build a Company Where the Best Ideas Win Out
• The Persistence of Patent Trolls in Tech
• AI: Ready to Disrupt Experience Design?
• Modern-day Publisher Models: Beyond Advertising
• Animation in UX: Subconscious Influence of Motion
• THIS IS US Season 2 Finale Episode (w/ Cast Members)
• War on Platforms: Is the Medium Still the Message?
• What User Experience Exposes About Your Culture
• Can AI Soothe the Savage Comment Section?
• From AI to EI: Empathy is the New Tech Superpower
• Why Machine Learning is the Next Frontier for Art
• The Bill Murray Stories: Life Lessons Learned From A Mythical Man
• Social Media & Social Good: Creators to The Rescue
• Content Creation in the Age of AI
• Phil Hellmuth Jr. Book Signing
• Social Media + Social Causes Meet Up
• Driving Audience: If You Build It, They Will Not Come
• ICO Alternative Financing for Startups
• Free Radical: Chelsea Manning with Vogue’s Sally Singer
• Building Communities: URL & IRL