Coming up in June, Techstars, 43North, and the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus will be hosting Code:Buffalo – a weekend-long hackathon where top tech talents will compete against one another to build an application utilizing GraphQL, an open source query language for applications. If you don’t know what that means, then chances are you are not a coder, or versed in tech lingo, so this event might not be for you.
Code:Buffalo offers Buffalo’s seasoned and aspiring tech talent a chance to:
- Show off their skills
- Network with Buffalo’s top startup and corporate talent
- Learn new technology
- Compete to win $5,000 in cash, along with other prizes
In order to compete, participants must at least have a grasp of the basics when it comes to coding. Other than that, the event is free and open to the public, but you must register – individuals and teams of 3-5 people are encouraged to register as soon as possible via the Eventbrite page. Individuals who sign up will be assigned to a team – all teams will work on the same project, to keep it fair. The details of the project will be announced at the event kick off on Friday, June 14 at dig, located within the Innovation Center on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. Later that evening, Geoff Schmidt, co-founder and CEO of Apollo GraphQL, will be participating in a tech-focused roundtable discussion and workshop – competitors are welcome to attend.
The Code:Buffalo schedule is as follows:
Friday, June 14
Location: dig (within the Innovation Center, 640 Ellicott St., Buffalo, NY)
Start time: 6:30 pm
Organizers will kick-off the event and announce the project scope. That will be followed by a roundtable discussion with Geoff Schmidt, Founder and CEO of GraphQL, and a GraphQL workshop.
Saturday, June 15
Location: University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine And Biomedical Sciences Atrium (955 Main St., Buffalo, NY)
Start time: 10 am
Throughout the day and into the late evening, teams will work independently to build applications.
Sunday, June 16
Location: dig
Start time: 10:30 am
Teams will present their projects to a team of judges and the winners will be announced during an awards ceremony.
*Light meals and refreshments will be served throughout the weekend’s events
“Buffalo has more startup activity today than we’ve seen in generations. To keep that momentum going, we need to continue to cultivate Western New York’s tech talent. That’s why I’m excited to see some of our community’s best coders come together to compete and network at the first-ever Code:Buffalo hackathon,” said 43North President Alex Gress.
“The health and resiliency of an entrepreneurial ecosystem is positively correlated to the volume of recent connections and interactions taking place between passionate, creative innovators and collaborators,” said Jack Greco, Executive Director of the Techstars Buffalo Startup Ecosystem Development Program. “The Code:Buffalo hackathon represents a platform for tech talent to develop relationships among the group; grow together as teammates and a community; and take another step towards forming a more sustainable, integrated tech startup culture in Western New York.”
“The Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus is proud to support events like Code:Buffalo, which help bridge the gap between the tech community working in the corporate world and those working in early-stage companies. Whether you are an expert in React or Java, or just learning the basics of coding, Code:Buffalo is the perfect opportunity to meet like-minded peers and show off your skills,” said Sam Marrazzo, CIO of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.
In addition to Techstars, 43North and the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Code:Buffalo receives support from Campus Labs, HiOperator, Immersed Games and M&T Bank.