Spring Collab Hackathon

Are you ambitious and passionate about shaping the future of email? Do you have ideas for how to improve the way we communicate with each other?

If so, we want to see you in action! Zimbra and Synacor invite you to join us at our first ever Hackathon on March 29-30 at Hotel Henry in Buffalo NY.

About the Hackathon

We're looking for creative thinkers and doers to collaborate on developing new features for email and messaging, and especially for the newly released Zimbra code. All skill levels are welcome! Hang out with us at the beautiful Hotel Henry as we ideate, design, code, eat snacks and meet new people who share similar passions. In addition to participating teams, we will have local experts on site assisting and providing technical/emotional support. We'll be offering a tutorial of Zimbra and Synacor's other developer services if you want ideas to kick things off, and look forward to seeing what you build! We've opened up a full set of APIs, so if you want to add other services to Zimbra come on by. Want to be able to order a pizza by sending a mail? Pay your electric bill? Order up a Lyft an hour before your next meeting? How about cue up your Spotify playlist as your afternoon coffee alarm?

At Synacor, we have adopted a progressive approach to innovation - one that embraces openness and encourages collaboration between entrepreneurs, professionals, hobbyists and beginners of all genders and backgrounds.

About Zimbra

Zimbra is releasing our newest code base, and it is an update to our email, calendar and collaboration solution built for the cloud, both public and private. With a React-based application and containerized architecture, the next generation of Zimbra offers the most innovative messaging experience available today, connecting end users to the information and activity in their personal clouds.

For you

You’re a developer, designer, writer or a product manager. We invite you to sign up a team before the event or come on your own and meet people onsite. Whether you want to design it, code it or document it, you are welcome to join us. You’ll be integrating 3rd party services or building brand new collaboration products that can be used within the Zimbra application. Just bring with you your laptop, your skills and ideas and a collaborative, team-focused mindset.

Event Schedule

March 29th

10:00AM - Doors open for registration and breakfast/networking
10:30AM - Introductions, opening talks
11:00AM - Team formation and idea iteration
12:00PM - Team registration
12:30PM - Lunch
1:00PM - Teams start work!
7:00PM - Cocktail hour, dinner and networking

March 30th

12:00AM - Cookies & Red Bull Break
7:00AM - CODE FREEZE! All teams must close all pull requests by 7AM to be included in the final presentations
7:00AM - Breakfast and networking
8:00AM - Final presentation, pitches and judging

Prizes

Prizes will be awarded to the top teams as selected by the judges and split between team members.

Amazon Giftcards, Echo Spots, Tile Mates and More!

Judging Criteria

Projects will be judged based on participants’ ability to describe your project, consumer value, characterization and code quality.

Judges:
Erynn Petersen - Synacor, Inc
Charlie Lisk - Oracle Cloud
Jon Spitz - z80 Labs/Buffalo Blockchain
Nick Barone - Helm Experience & Design

Many thanks to our sponsors:
Premium Sponsors:
Oracle

Sponsors:
Postlight
Synacor, Inc
Girl Develop It

A special thank you to:
Society of Women Engineers
University of Buffalo, School of Engineering & Applied Sciences
z80 Labs
dig Buffalo
Hotel Henry

Location:
Hotel Henry
444 Forest Ave
Buffalo, NY 14213

Hotel Henry Urban Resort Conference Center makes innovative new use of one of Western New York’s most iconic architectural landmarks. Widely considered to be one of Buffalo’s most important and beautiful buildings, construction on the 145-year-old Richardson Olmsted Campus began in 1872 and opened in 1880 as the state-of-the-art Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane. Today, Hotel Henry’s uncommon spaces invite guests to explore, gather and tuck away in the unique character of Buffalo’s National Historic Landmark.