Participating Africa's Talking Communities:

• Kenya

• Tanzania

• Rwanda

• Uganda

• Nigeria

• South Africa

• Democratic Republic of Congo

• Malawi

• Egypt

• Ghana

• The Gambia

TADHack, since its founding in 2014, has always been hybrid. You can take part in-person or remote.

Check out Welcome to TADHack Africa video. 

Check out this Guide to TADHack Global 2024 for information and advice on getting the most out of TADHack. If you have questions, just ask in the comments section of that weblog, thanks.

Check out the ‘Choose your location’ section on this page, click on the location you can attend, and then on the specific location page click on the register button. You’re now on the TADHack Global 2024 list! The Location page will contain the address, schedule, and other important information about the specific location. If there is no location close by, you can take part in the Global Remote location.

Review the TADHack Global Sponsor’s developer resources. To win prizes please use at least one of their technologies. The more you mash up the more prizes you can win.

We’ll use TADS Slack for communications.

Get the ticket and Submit Your Idea Here

The Basics:

This post provides a guide to TADHack Global 2024, 19-20 October. TADHack Global is a hackathon where people round the world hack in parallel over one weekend. TADHack helps people learn about the latest Internet, IT, and Telecoms / Communications technologies; and use those technologies to solve problems that matter to them.

We recently had a chat with Raj Shivakumar about his summer internship with jambonz adding vCon (STROLID, one of this year’s TADHack sponsors). Raj was a vCon winner at TADHack Open in March, and from that win got a summer internship. Not only can you win cash prizes at TADHack, but also internships working on high profile open source projects. The chat is also a nice intro to vCon as well.

Past hacks have included programmable communications / telecoms (voice, video, messaging), internet of things, cloud computing, robotics, machine learning, speech and face recognition, mobile payments, enterprise communications, decentralized web, blockchain, encryption, open source, and many other technologies. Check out previous years’ hacks from 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014.

TADHack is for Everyone: it’s an event where people (e.g. students, graphic designers, interface designers, project managers, product managers, IT Managers, coders and non-coders, interested individuals, and subject-matter-experts) collaborate on a software project. Occasionally, there is a hardware component, for example we’ve had some impressive IoT (Internet of Things) hacks over the years, including a dancing robot.

Some important points:

• You do not need to be a coding expert to take part, TADHack is for everyone.
• A hack, is a software project. It’s an idea (we’ll come back to how to get ideas later in this weblog), a demonstration of part of that idea, and as importantly a presentation – a pitch of the hack. You do not need to have a complete demonstration, just a bit of it. The idea and its presentation is just as important as the demonstration.
• We have few technical restrictions, the formal hackathon rules are here, you can use whatever language and APIs you like, and your preferred development tools. We only ask the hack includes at least one of the global sponsors listed on landing page of TADHack Global 2024. The more sponsor’s you mash-up the more chances to win.

We use TADS Slack for communications, sign up if you do not already have an account. Here is the group for General Discussions.

How do I submit my hack remotely?

Check out this weblog.

How do I prepare?

1. Check out the Location section on the main TADHack Global page, most locations this year are virtual, with the exception of Sri Lanka, and then click on the register button. Else click on Global Remote in the Location section and register there. You’re now on the TADHack Global 2024 list!
2. If you are taking part remotely you do not need to hack over the weekend of the 19/20th October. You can start earlier and wrap-up earlier as well. They exact timing is up to you, but make sure you submit your entry before the deadline set for the location you’re taking part in, follow the schedule on your location page.

How do you get an idea for a hack?

This is the question that puts many people off taking part in a hackathon. Some people are fortunate to just be constantly having ideas. For most of us however, the act of trying to come up with an idea chases them all away from our mind.

The secret for a successful hack is to think about all the problems you see in your life and those of friends, family, colleagues, and community. We all have problems in our lives and thinking about them is easy. As you consider those problems, have a think about how the sponsors’ technologies can help you solve them.

I guarantee after you do this a few times, you’ll have several ideas to choose from. And best of all they will be ideas you care about, check out this one from Justin at TADHack-mini Orlando, it was a personal challenge he faced in his life so it mattered intensely to him.

Who gets involved in TADHack?

• Web developers learning about the latest technologies;
• Coders and non-coders (students, graphic designers, interface designers, project managers, product managers, IT Managers, interested individuals) discovering how easy its become to use new technologies – TADHack really is for everyone;
• Enterprise IT – some basic scripting skills and cut ‘n’ paste is enough these days to build impressive hacks.
• Analysts and other business types, people interested to experience the journey of discovery that is a TADHack weekend.
• First-timers coming in to chat, learn and see what a hackathon is all about. Building confidence to hack at their next event. We have the highest return ratio of any hackathon as people enjoy being part of TADHack.
• We also have young teenagers with their parent(s) take part, learning and building confidence and winning!

The benefits of being involved in TADHack include:

• Learning – it’s a great opportunity to learn about the sponsors’ technologies;
• Prizes (cash) and global recognition are always nice;
• Internships – see what Raj did with Jambonz;
  
• Networking – You’ll make new friends, mostly virtual this year.
• Have fun!
• Hiring – TADHack is a great place to discover impressive talent. Adding to your resume pitch video links showcases your creativity, development and presentation skills. People get great jobs through being involved in TADHack;
• Business development – often people, teams, and sponsors discover they have common business interests with the people attending;

Below are some Q&A from old weblogs I include here as well.

Q) Who should participate in TADHack?

A) TADHack is for everyone, from hackers (coders), through hustlers (business people), to hipsters (designers).

Q) I’m not a developer, why should I join, what will I learn?

A) The focus of TADHack is learning about the latest technologies: guaranteed you’ll find this relevant to your life and work.

Q) Can my hack be something we are working on ahead of the weekend?

A) Yes, just let the sponsors know in your pitch.

Q) When and where is TADHack Global?

A) TADHack Global 2024 runs over the weekend 19-20 October.

Q) How are the prizes awarded? The sponsors will judge all the pitch videos, and we’ll announce the winners on Monday 21st October on a live stream on the TADHack YouTube channel, and on the TADHack blog.

Q) What is a pitch at TADHack?

A) It’s where you explain and demonstrate your hack. One person or the whole team can give the pitch. The only strict limit is its 5 minutes maximum, unless you’re giving the pitch in your local language and its being translated in step to English. By in-step we mean you speak a few sentences, then someone else repeats in English. The recommended structure is:

• Introduce you / the team (and team name if you have one)
• Introduce the hack / showcase name and a brief description
• List the sponsor’s resources used in the hack (which sponsors should judge your hack)
• If you want to be judged for the Accessibility and Inclusion prize please explain why your hack is relevant.
• Explain the hack, can be done through a simple presentation / a little acting, whatever you / the team wants to do.
• And, of course, a demo of what you created.

Q) How do I collect my prize if I win?

A) Do not worry, we’ll be in touch.

Q) What if I have other questions?

A) Just add them in the comments section and we’ll answer them.

Join community channels:

Slack:

• Join Africa's Talking slack community here
• Join Elarian Slack community here

Please follow our Twitter handles to:

• @AfricasTalking
• @ElarianHQ

You can get our videos, recaps, and event interviews on our youtube channels, subscribe to get updates:

Africa's Talking Youtube Channel

Elarian Youtube Channel

Africa's Talking community allows developers to learn skills for the modern-day African Developer. We are language and framework agnostic. All developers are welcome. This is where Africa's Talking developers community meets to build, learn and exchange knowledge.

We are helping software developers and businesses to bring their ideas to life through easy-to-use APIs easily.

Would you like to partner with us? Kindly contact the Developer Experience Team.