Being a hackathon newbie until this weekend, I had always imagined hackathons as a room filled with glasses wearing programming nerds. Bartending my first, I realized that they are fun, bonding experiences filled with innovation and networking opportunities.
I served as bartender of the “Byte Bar” which was sponsored by Byte Academy, the coding bootcamp that partnered with StartupBootcamp FinTech, a global accelerator, on the event. This was StartupBootcamp’s first hackathon in the United States and appropriately called FinTech City Never Sleeps. Developers, VCs, designers, and more from across industries came together to solve some of the greatest challenges in financial technology. Categories of challenges included Financial Trust, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Financial Inclusion, and Target Niche Banking. Technology, energy drinks, banks and companies from around the world sponsored the event, even providing beer openers (thank you Xignite for making my life easier…)
Aside from the enrollees, comedians, industry experts, volunteers and business minds contributed to the 24 hour event. Cody Hess, a coding instructor, MC’ed the orchestration. His programming jokes still make me laugh..
