Please make sure to complete our PARTICIPANT INFORMATION FORM form PRIOR to the Hackathon

What is a hackathon?

A hackathon is a social design sprint that brings together the community to work in teams creating innovative solutions. Basically, it’s a party, and a 48-hour race between teams competing to develop solutions to problem-sets for cash prizes. Participants will work in small teams that have a collection of experts, entrepreneurs, students, and community members to tackle identified challenges, some past challenges included:

• Increase food access in urban core neighborhoods
• Create opportunities for green initiatives, including environmental education, coastal resilience, and conservation
• Propose home refurbishment programs and housing
• Develop capacity for education and workforce skills development
• Solve the plastic pollution issue in Galveston: Plastic trash in the water supply, on the beaches, and in the waterways of Galveston and surround areas affects the community in many ways (e.g., beaches look dirty, the plastic has chemicals harmful to health, and microplastics get into the environment and remain there for long periods of time. How can we solve this problem, removing and reducing waste and its downstream impacts, and make our community safer and cleaner? The plastic pollution problem can be address in the way of innovative preventive steps, innovation treatments, and public education, etc.
• Offer creative solutions to other challenges

We encourage all participants to use their creative thinking to develop innovative new concepts, ideas, or prototypes. Please make sure to complete our PARTICIPANT INFORMATION FORM form PRIOR to the Hackathon. This helps us understand, roughly, how many individuals we will have per team.

Friday, October 13th

2:00 PM- 4:30 PM| Kick Off, Welcome Remarks, Problem Set Presentation, and Tips and Tricks Presentation, snacks provided at the Marmo

4:30 PM| Happy Hour and Formation of teams. Let the hacking begin!

Saturday, October 14th

9:30 AM- 6:00 PM| Hacking, food, snacks, and mentorship provided on-site at the Marmo. Participants must check in by 10:00 AM and are free to work at the Marmo or in the surrounding community. Snacks will be available at the Marmo cafe for purchase. Participants must check out in the 5:00 - 6:00 PM window, showing their pitch deck in order to check out for the day.

Sunday, October 16th

10:00 AM - 12:00 PM| Final Pitch Presentation at the Marmo. Participants must report by 9:30 AM.

*The hackathon is hosted by Incubate Galveston and the Ion.

WHAT is Incubate Galveston?

Incubate Galveston is a collaborative model backed by Galveston’s pillars of entrepreneurship, technology, innovation, and business. The initiative’s mission is to accelerate the journey of an entrepreneur by providing awareness of and equitable access to opportunities to connect and collaborate across the Galveston-Houston region. More information here: https://www.visiongalveston.com/initiatives/incubate-galveston

WHAT is the Ion?

The Ion anchors Houston’s Ion 16-acre Ion District. Located in the heart of Midtown, Houston, the Ion District invites residents, start-ups, and corporate, academic, and civic leaders to unite, explore, and create opportunities together. More information here: https://iondistrict.com/