Hackathons at Kolkata are not something frequent. But things have started to change. The laid back air of Kolkata is slowly gearing up and a number of hackathons are now being organized in our city. In the month of May, our team took part in Testathon 2016 organized by Global App testing at Hyatt Kolkata. And the hackathon fever at Kolkata has started to raise the bar since then.

Hackathons, however, are common at Innofied. We just love it. Not because we are a web and mobile app development company , but building something useful every day is what we are passionate about. Our teams are way ahead and has been organizing internal hackathons since its inception. So, when we heard of the initiative taken by NASSCOM 10000 Startup Kolkata in association with Microsoft and U.S. Consulate, we knew that Innofieders got to be there. They organized a grand 24 hours’ Hackathon on 23rd July 2016 at American Center, Kolkata.

A Crazy Hackathon Day Out

As our Innofieders stepped inside the American Center, they could feel the craze. Not just one or two, but more than 25 participants were equally excited. All were set to pitch their ideas and build some never seen prototypes. Participants included college goers, tech bloggers, analysts, startups, budding developers and more.

A cheerful greeting from the NASSCOM volunteers rushed a little more adrenaline. At the Lincoln Hall, there were a series of speeches delivered by Ravi Ranjan (Head of NASSCOM 10k Startup Program), Greg Pardo (Assistant Public Affairs Officer) at the U.S. Consulate, Kolkata.

Followed up by the speech was a quick mention about the do’s and don’ts of the hackathon.

Our four-member team got 3 minutes to introduce their app idea before the crowd just like others. And soon there was a technical session by the group of mentors and Microsoft MVP experts. After dinner, they had a pre-hackathon networking.

Sharp at 12:30 AM, hacking resumed. Coding was in full swing. Around 12:00 in the afternoon our team member submitted the first draft of the app.

Anirban Saha of Kolkata Bloggers, the media manager for the program, had something to exclaim about our app idea, and he went on to say, “I’m convinced!”. A round of people from NASSCOM came to us, whom we explained our app and they all seemed impressed.

After 24 hours long session, when ideas have almost dried up, you need someone to cheer. Swarnendu De, our mentor at Innofied along with his friend Ritesh Osta (Crossindia Adventures) were there to guide the team with valuable advice.

Pitching session began after brief speeches from the Consulate Employees and NASSCOM members. After the prize was given out to a unique app idea, we ramped up for the day. But guess what…our app idea attracted a few investors at the hackathon and we are looking forward to something positive!