Recap — GovTech Hackathon 2021
With 3 sleepless nights behind us in Pakistan’s ancient city of Peshawar, in the heart of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the GovTech Hackathon came to a close. After a month of hardcore hustling, we were thrilled to have 1000+ Pakistanis apply to participate from over 150 cities WORLDWIDE, beating our previous record of 700 applications from just 60 cities. (Shoutout to the applicants from Arifwala, Batkhela, Dahranwala, Dunyapur, Hujra Shah Muqeem, Jampur, Khadro, Kunri, Miani, Pabbi, Rojhan, Sarai Alamgir, and many more!)
We received 50 submissions from different teams and individuals, marking it as the highest number of final submissions we have received in any of the previous hackathons organized by Code for Pakistan.
You can view these submissions at:
https://govtech-hackathon.devpost.com/project-gallery
The Night Before (Thursday, 7th October)
The GovTech Hackathon officially kicked off on Thursday night, October 7th, 2021, with an opening session hosted by Ibraheem Saleem (Manager KP Programs, Code for Pakistan). He took questions from the audience, and laid down the rules for the weekend-long hackathon.
You can watch the opening session: https://fb.watch/8AU-z_n2Bx/
To keep us all organized and in sync, the shortlisted applicants were encouraged to register themselves on the Devpost GovTech Hackathon page and communicate with others via Slack, with Code for Pakistan team members assisting and moderating both channels.
Day 1 (Friday, 8th October)
The weekend started early, with a well-received panel discussion with last year’s hackathon winners. Joining the panel was; Ms. Tahreem Fatima (1st prize winner, Team Satisfire), Mr. Ahmed Rizvi (2nd prize winner, Team Solution Seekers), Mr. Ali Riaz (3rd prize winner, Team Biobeing), and moderated by yours truly, Ammar Rehmani (Storytelling Lead, Code for Pakistan). The panelist shared their experience of last year’s virtual hackathon, as well as practical advice for the participants for this year’s event, such as:
You can watch the complete discussion here: https://fb.watch/8xkWKane8z/
The first round of mentoring sessions took place for the registered teams throughout the day. We have diverse, top-notch professionals from various fields helping participants navigate the challenges of a hackathon and suggest improvements in the proposed solutions.
See the list of amazing mentors we have onboard for GovTech Hackathon, here:
The day concluded with a speaker session by Shaji Ahmed (VP Technology, Code for Pakistan) on Open Source Github.
“When we share information, magic can truly happen” ~ Shaji Ahmed
Watch the complete session here: https://fb.watch/8xnh7s3t-B/
Day 2 (Saturday, 9th October)
Day 2 of the GovTech Hackathon began with the Code for Pakistan team welcoming in-person visits from participants at Durshal, Peshawar.
Mentoring sessions continued (online) throughout the day. Participants were immersed in activities, with breaks for speaker sessions. The first speaker session of the day was on Critical Thinking by Qarib Kazmi (Senior Software Engineer at Bentley Systems Pakistan), where he shared the five steps to critical thinking. Watch the session here: https://fb.watch/8xpp0H7hUJ/
The second session was on design thinking by Dr. Cedric Aimal (Chairman Department of Management Sciences, CECOS), where he talked about empathy being key to design thinking. Watch the session here: https://fb.watch/8xpRKYuTIl/
Day 3 (Sunday, 10th October)
With just one more day to go, participants were hard at work, receiving support and guidance from the Code for Pakistan staff who were on the ground.
Hannia Zia (Mentor at Venture for Pakistan, ex-Google Product Manager), delivered a talk on product management, touching upon topics such as the role of product manager, metrics to measure success, and the value of data.
Watch the complete session at: https://fb.watch/8zSirR8ucG/
With 9 hours left for submission, a reminder went out to all the participants on our social media, Devpost and Slack channels.
Next up was a session on How to Pitch Effectively by Haroon Baig (Freelancer — HackerNoon), where he talked about common mistakes to avoid, things that enhance a pitch and the value of rehearsing a pitch.
“Structure your presentation smartly; design it to engage your audience” ~ Haroon Baig
Watch the complete session at: https://fb.watch/8zTuGuPUyv/
With speaker sessions out of the way and time running out for submissions, the participants began testing their prototypes and giving their projects final touches.
A closing message for the participants was shared by Ibraheem Saleem, watch it here; https://fb.watch/8zTGVKxPHL/
What’s Next?
Our team of experts will shortlist the top 15 submissions for the final round. The shortlisted participants will be informed and prepare to present their project in front of the judges on Thursday (14th October).
What to look out for on our social media?
- Announcement of panel of judges
- Winner of the GovTech Hackathon 2021
