Growing Our Region

Hackathon is back!

The wheels are in motion and the 2018 AgTech Hackathon, presented by CEDA and powered by BCC is coming our way very soon.​
​The Hackathon will bring together smart farmers, technology experts and corporates to collaborate and create on-farm opportunities to solve problems. Teams compete against each other to bring farmers’ practical knowledge of farm systems and problems together with technology experts’ software skills.

After the overwhelming success of the inaugural event in 2017, this year’s event will be launched and problem statements announced, as part of the New Zealand AgriFood Week at Central District Field Days this month.

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2017 Hackathon participants gather in the early stages of the competition.
While many of the elements from the 2017 event will continue such as on farm visits and a Dragons Den type presentation, the key difference will be the extension of the time period. The actual Hackathon will be held in May, giving teams the time to start developing and gathering data on the farm.

Event organiser, Johnelle Hosking of the BCC, sees water as a major focus for this year which means it will likely be predominant in the problem statements. 

“This is a massive community effort, bringing together groups and individuals from numerous fields of expertise,” she says.

“We will have more teams, new ideas and no doubt some great conversations and connections between our rural and urban communities.”

The six teams from the 2017 event have created four solutions. One product is on the market, another is in proof of concept phase, and the winners have formed two start-ups.