SXSW 2019 Hackathon Details and Opportunity

We’re weeks away from media innovation from throughout the world, descending on Austin, as it does every spring, for SXSW.

If you’re on your way to Texas, make sure we connect; our team is involved in SXSW Pitch, supporting SXSW EDU, and hosting dozens of venture capitalists and startups at Funded House.   As is always the case at this monumental of industry conferences, there is a lot going on and what caught my attention most notably today was the news of the 2019 Hackathon.

Returning for its sixth year, with an exhilarating 24-hour marathon on March 12-13 at the Omni Austin Hotel Downtown, developers, coders, and tech creatives will collaborate in teams to build technology focused on topics covered at SXSW — including Music, VR, AR, AI, and Blockchain.

The SXSW Hackathon fosters innovation and creativity, inspiring developers and coders to take their projects to the next level. Two of the 2018 three winning teams have gone on to launch companies and The Best Music project winner from the 2017 was also recently selected for Techstars 2019 Class of Music Tech Startups. This year developers from Japan, Mexico, Germany, Canada, and throughout the U.S. have already registered.

Participating hackers will have an extensive range of resources, including guidance from official mentors, public APIs and tools, and SXSW’s partner APIs and SDKs. The three winning teams will be awarded cash and sponsor prizes during the Hackathon Final Presentations and Awards event, Wednesday, March 13 at 1:30 p.m. – open to all SXSW badgeholders. Winners will also be invited to join the SXSW Hackathon Incubator from March 14-15, where they will fine-tune their projects with guidance from industry mentors. Interested hackers can apply here through March 5.

I’d like to encourage you to then let us know, at Collective, what you’re cooking so we can weave you into our next MediaTech cohort later this year.

“Every year VCs come to this event to get an idea of what’s really possible with frontier tech.”  Travis Laurendine, SXSW Hackathon co-creator and CODEMKRS founder noted, “At pitch events you just hear ideas, but at the SXSW Hackathon you see ideas come to life in just 24 hours, so it gives you a handle on what can be done and how much time it takes to build the mvp of it.”

2019 judges include Scot Barbour, VP Production & Innovation of Sony Pictures Entertainment; Josh Constine, Editor-At-Large at TechCrunch, Louise-Marie Marguet, CEO of EmoJam, Lauren Vitek, Founding Employee at TravelBank, Jon Gottfried, Co-Founder of Major League Hacking, Andrew Dubber, Director of Music Tech Fest, and Tuhin Roy, Senior Vice President of New Digital Business and Innovation at UMG.

The 2019 SXSW Hackathon is presented by R9B thanks to the additional support by BuzzAngle Music, Capitol360, Cox Automotive, Devpost, Eluvio, Kony, Native Instruments, RealtimeBoard, R3, ShowSparker, and Universal Music Group.

SXSW, this year with the support of Capital One, Mercedes-Benz, Bud Light, Uber Eats, and The Austin Chronicle, dedicates itself to helping creative people achieve their goals. Founded in 1987 in Austin, Texas, SXSW is best known for its conference and festivals that celebrate the convergence of our world: interactive, film, and music industries. The conference proves that the most unexpected discoveries happen when diverse topics and people come together.

“Universal Music Group is pleased to partner with SXSW to encourage the development of a new wave of music applications and technologies,” added Tuhin Roy, “by supporting the talented developers and entrepreneurs participating in the 2019 SXSW Hackathon.”

March 7th, get yourself to Music Education & Employment: Bridging the Gap where our good friend and partner, Brian Penick, Jen Appel, Dwight Heckelman, and Ulf Oesterle to join him in exploring the gap between the education and the job.

Starting on the 8th, and for the following few days thanks to BuildFax, find us, the venture capital community, and founders at Funded House. RSVP now here, so we can match your venture to VC.

And we’ll see you at the SXSW Hackathon, March 12th and 13th!