The official City of Houston Hackathon.

This is Houston's annual civic hackathon.  It is a 24 hour civic hacking celebration!

You can bring your own ideas or work on a sample project.  Collaborate with new friends and city stakeholders, or bring your own team.  This is a fun, family-friendly event.

Here is the event schedule:

Saturday, May 31

  • 11:00a - doors open, lunch, networking
  • 12:15p - announcements, introductions, thank yous
  • 12:40p - find a team / icebreaker exercise OR if you have a team, get to work!
  • 6:00p - dinner
  • 9:00p - stretch!  fun exercises.
  • 12:00a - free hackathon posters for everyone working overnight!

You are invited to stay overnight at the venue, but it is totally optional. Get some rest if you need it!

Sunday, June 1

  • 9:00a - breakfast
  • 9:30a-11:00a - presentation coaching
  • 11:30a - lunch
  • 12:00p - DEADLINE. final submissions must be sent through ChallengePost.
  • 1:00p - presentations begin
  • ~3:00p - that's it!

Parking can be tricky, especially on Saturday when the streets are metered.  There is a lot located 1 block away above BlackFinn, and there are several lots in the vicinity.  Check out this handy parking map.

View full rules

Prizes

$3,250 in prizes

Pitch to the Mayor (3)

After the hackathon, three teams will be invited to City Hall for a private meeting with Mayor Parker and her senior staff.

Mayor's Honorable Mention (3)

Grand Prize

Awarded at the discretion of the Boniuk Foundation. They are looking for the best applications that encourage cross-cultural exchange.

Youth Prize

Awarded at the discretion of the Boniuk Foundation to the best student team.

Rice Civic Leadership Prize

Awarded by the Rice Center for Civic Leadership to the project that has the most potential to improve the quality of life for people in the City of Houston.

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Eligibility

Everyone can participate.  Projects must be submitted by 12p on June 1 in order to be considered.

Requirements

Examples of qualified submissions:

  • A link to a demo site
  • A link to a github repo
  • A presentation outlining the idea in detail

How to enter

Please submit your project here on ChallengePost by 12p on June 1.

Judges

Kelly Dowe

Kelly Dowe
Finance Director and Chief Business Officer, City of Houston

Christopher Newport

Christopher Newport
Chief of Staff for Mayor Parker

Jackie Smith

Jackie Smith
Assistant Director of IT, HITS, Enterprise Data Management, City of Houston

Reenie Askew

Reenie Askew
HITS Deputy Director over Enterprise Applications and ERP

Daniel Adeyemo

Daniel Adeyemo
Deputy CIO, City of Houston

Lourdes Coss

Lourdes Coss
Chief Procurement Officer, City of Houston

Judging Criteria

  • Progress
    How much progress did the team make over 24 hours?
  • Relevance
    How relevant is the project to City of Houston services? How closely aligned is it to one of the Mayor's priorities?
  • Difficulty
    How difficult was the project? How did they adapt to the hackathon format?
  • Presentation
    Did the team clearly present the material? Did they make their project easy to understand?