With everything that’s going on, it has never been more important to remain connected than it is today. With our emergency services stretched thin, our loved ones feeling isolated in local lockdowns, and many of us confused and depressed, wouldn’t it be awesome if we could generate some positivity out of all this?
Together, we can. We recently announced a free global* hackathon to encourage everyone to come together and make something beautiful. All levels, from experienced developers to coding newbies, can apply their skills in creating an application with a positive, meaningful function.
The challenge is to create an app that makes life easier for the selfless men and women working in our emergency services, that better connects families and loved ones during what can be a very lonely time, or that provides joy and positivity to people’s lives and gets their minds off what’s going on.
While these criteria may seem quite broad, we’ve done this on purpose so as not to limit the scope of your creativity. Whether you develop an app that helps emergency services better communicate internally with context-based prompts and scenarios, or you create a simplified video conferencing tool that makes it possible for people to share their weekly Sunday roast dinners with their nans, whatever you’d like to create and how you would like to create it is entirely up to you and your team**.
Just make sure that whatever it is, it brings people together and contributes towards making the world a better place.
The hackathon is live right now, and runs until 12:00 AM (Pacific Time Zone, that’s 8 hours behind BST) on 14 October.
To register for the hackathon all you need to do is visit our dedicated landing page and fill in the registration form. Then, visit our Developer Platform to find out more about what APIs we have available for you to work with.
To help make sure you’re on the right track, at 11:00 AM Pacific Time on 28 September we will host a check-in session where you can ask questions related to your application to our panel of RingCentral experts. Make sure you save the date!
You need to submit your development by 14 October by 7:59AM BST. Winners will be announced on 22 October and the teams responsible for the top three applications will win some pretty awesome prizes. Check out our hackathon landing page for more info on the prizes. Seriously, go and have a look. Look at first prize. It’s for real.
One last thing: Does your creative developer-flair last longer than the duration of the hackathon?
The good news is you can access and use our award-winning APIs all year round through our Developer Platform. Whether you’re working on your own application that’s going to revolutionise the way we live, or you’re part of a team developing an amazing piece of software that’s only lacking in essential communications capabilities, you can access our APIs for functions such as meetings, team collaboration, voice, and even fax!
You can also continue to develop your skills, win prizes and be recognised for your achievements through our Game Changers platform, where you complete regular challenges to gain points which can then be used to redeem rewards like RingCentral branded swag and electronics.
Whether you’d like to take part in our hackathon and contribute towards making the world a better place, or would simply like to develop your skills through a fun, engaging and rewarding platform, you’re welcome to make the most of the various resources we have available.
*Must be a resident of the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, France, or Canada (excluding Quebec).
**No more than 5 members per team
No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited or restricted. 18+ only. UK, US, AU, FR, or CA (exlc. QC) only. 8/13/2020 – 10/14/2020. Employees not eligible. Prizes non-transferable, subject to issuer’s T&C’s. Full T&C’s online.
Originally published Sep 16, 2020, updated Jan 16, 2023
