1. "

    To submit your entry tweet using

    #hackmanchester #video
    YOUR TEAM NAME
    YOUR VIDEO URL

    and the challenge:
    #barclaystech - for university challenge
    @ao_com - for the ao.com challenge
    @laterooms - for the laterooms challenge
    @webappuk - for the web applications uk challenge
    @clockworksms - for the clockwork challenge
    @layershift - for the layershift challenge
    #company - company challenge

    All entries will be considered for Best in Show.

    EXAMPLE
    #hackmanchester #video TEAM BOB https://vimeo.com/35322798 #company @ao_com

    "
     

  2. Great post about #hackmanchester prep from one of last year’s attendees! Are you starting to plan yet?

     

  3. University challenge - Prize part one

    ‘Fast-track application* for each member of the winning team to a paid 2014 summer internship at Barclays global technology centre in Knutsford, Cheshire.  12 week contract worth over £5000 each.’

    Each applicant would be guaranteed an interview but would need to successfully complete an interview and all recruitment checks required by law to undertake the role.

     

  4. The LateRooms Mo-cial Travel Challenge

    Mobile and Social go hand in hand, add in a plethora of problems and challenges that we all encounter as we visit new exciting destinations and explore - and you’ve got yourself a challenge!!

    We want to see what weird and whacky ideas 24 hours and sleep deprivation can dream up .. using mobile and social to help make any aspect of travel that little bit easier and fun.

    We will also supply a CSV of lots of hotel goodness for you to use (if you want to) so that you can plug some hotel content into the mix…

    http://datafeed.laterooms.com/Hotels.zip

    Prize

    4 x 1 night stay for 2 on B&B (valid for a year – on request) at H10 London Waterloo - http://www.laterooms.com/en/hotel-reservations/194633_h10-london-waterloo-london.aspx

     

  5. Challenge from ao.com

    Hack Manchester Challenge

    Hello! We’re ao.com!

    13 years ago a business was born, alongside one man’s vision to ‘change the face of the white goods industry’.

    Today ao.com provides a third of all kitchen appliances sold within the UK, making over a million deliveries each year… and shows no signs of slowing down!

    So how do we do it? 

    Simple really, we function around one focus… Happiness. A happy workforce makes for happy customers and happy suppliers!….  Throw in a highly creative working environment with plenty of space for play, and you’ve got a lot of talent caring enough to make all our customers smile!

    This year we were awarded 4th spot in The Times Top 100 UK companies to work for, topping last year’s spot at No. #5.

    Our restless pursuit for ‘bigger and better’ has led to ao.com becoming a market-leading retail business with Information Technology and Software Development, at its core. 

    Our business is run on bespoke software and strategically integrated software products, allowing us to react to opportunities faster than our competitors, understand our customers better and push the boundaries of the possible from great… to awesome.

    The Challenge

    “Hack days and Hackathon’s are a ridiculous amount of fun (well we think so anyway). What we want you to build for us is the ultimate software companion for a team participating in this kind of event. Think of it as the ultimate dashboard/intelligent agent that provides you with information about what’s going on in your team, and what’s going on in the wider Hackathon.

    At ao.com, our mission statement contains the line, “everything we do revolves around happiness” and so we’re going to judge the entries on how happy they make us. The qualities we’re going to be looking for (that make us happy) are:

    • Innovation of idea/concept – the more useful the better
    • How engaging the app is, especially its inherent humour/comedy
    • Technical mastery, behind the scenes in the technologies you employ but also in the design and user experience of the application.

    Wehope that all of you are creative enough to really run with this idea and have a massive amount of fun building it, but in case you need some help, here are a few ideas we thought might help you along…

    • Stream the timeline of Hackathon goings on from social media sites
    • Provide build metrics like how many lines of code, test coverage, build status etc
    • Team or conference chat function, possibly with a software agent that can help with team activities
    • Alert team members when it’s time to take a break, hold another planning session etc
    • Locate errant team members when they’ve wandered off for a break and you need their code”

    The Prizes

    Apart from winning the competition we want to make sure the winners are rewarded for their dedication to development and for taking 24 hours out of their time to compete.

    The four lucky winners will walk home with their own array of gifts from ao.com

    These include 4 brand new mini ipads, 4 Tassimo desktop coffee machines by Bosch and lots of ao swag!

     

  6. After the amazing support from last year, we’re delighted to have Web Apps on board again. Their Rube Goldberg challenge from last year gave us some truly entertaining hacks at the award show, so we’re looking forward to what you make this year. Also - what a PRIZE!

     

  7. Layershift

    Layershift are a Manchester based managed hosting provider, giving you a safe and reliable home for all of your web projects. Layershift take care of the server stuff for you, so you can focus 100% of your energy on the exciting bit (your code, your business, your customers).

    Layershift’s revolutionary Jelastic PaaS provides each developer with their own exclusive server stack catering for Java or PHP projects. Combine these with powerful 1-click load balancing, horizontal scaling, and a unique automatic vertical scaling feature, and you have an incredibly versatile platform ready to power your next project.

    Layershift are providing exclusive free application hosting for all Hack Manchester competitors during the competition, with bonus prizes on offer for the best application developed and hosted on their platform. It’s important to use tools that you’re familiar with during a hackathon, so you can experiment with the platform right now.

    Learn more at http://www.layershift.com/hackmanchester

     

  8. Delighted to announce latest sponsor @layershift as mentors. They have an added incentive for you to use Jelastic PaaS in your hack. 

     
  9. Sponsors 

    Clockwork SMS showing off their challenge prizes of Nexus Phones AND a giant banana!

     

  10. Our lovely sponsors Clockwork SMS have got a really exciting challenge for you. Go read more and find out about the exciting PRIZES!