DBS is Bringing Their Hackathon to Hong Kong this March – All Participants will be Paid!

UPDATE: An info session will be held at Garage Society this Friday 13th Feb

On March 4 to 6 of this year, DBS will be bringing DBS Hackathons to Hong Kong for the first time. After last year’s undoubted success in Singapore, the DBS Hackathons are back – bigger, better and with more gateways to success for the participants.

This time, the organisers – DBS Bank along with innovation and data-challenge organiser, Ideatory – have issued a simple yet emphatic call to mobile solution app developers wanting a chance to make inroads into the bustling fintech scene: come take part and MAKE IT BIG!

This year’s Hackathons will take place in Singapore (Feb 25 to 27) and Hong Kong (March 4 to 6), before the Megahackathon back in Singapore from March 25 to 27. Why “mega”? Because it will be done at a scale larger than all the preceding hackathons.

Besides the opportunity to rub shoulders with fellow app developers, participating teams will learn how to solve business challenges; or find new business opportunities by applying Human-Centred Design, or HCD.

To be facilitated by trainers from DBS, participants can pick up the finer points of applying HCD at various touch points during the customer journey, thereby creating new; or improving existing customer experiences. As well, they will learn how to develop paper prototypes, under the watchful guidance of their DBS mentors.

“What they said”

This is the 3^rd time that DBS is holding Hackathons to give participants the platform to show off their abilities and creations.

Last year’s winners, Dream Catchers from India, hailed the event as an opportunity for participants to “prove our skills in solving a business problem within limited time, but without limiting the quality”.

Team member Anand Krishnan said the learning and experiences from participating in last year’s Hackathon have prepared his team well for the corporate world. “We have taken home a lot of learning and we are sure this will help us nail the next challenge put across to us by DBS,” he added.

DBS Hackathon 2015 – bigger and better

This year’s Hackathons promise to replicate last year’s success and more. For one, the prize money that awaits the teams remains very attractive: HK$30,000, HK$18,000 and HK$12,000 for the top three teams in Singapore; while HK$10,000 will be awarded to all teams that complete the hackathon with a working prototype of their app.

In short, everyone wins and nobody goes home empty-handed.

But more than the financial rewards, another, arguably bigger incentive beckons: a rare opportunity to pick on the brains of top DBS executives including Chief Innovation Officer Neal Cross, Senior Vice President of Innovation Management David Beath, as well as the Head of Customer Journey Design in the bank, Raju Nair.

David Beath will be also be addressing interested teams – and giving you all the reasons you need to take part in the Hackathon at an info session on Friday, Feb 13, at Garage Society, between 6 and 8pm.

Get Hacking

Wait no more. If you have got what it takes to succeed, get on the radar of the largest bank and one of the largest companies in South-East Asia. Your efforts will not go unrewarded. This, we can assure you.

For more information on the DBS Hackathon 2015, visit: https://www.ideatory.co/dbs-hackathon/