#BuildwithAT #WeloveNerds #WomenInTech

Overview:

Join Africa's Talking Women in Tech Kampala for an exciting hackathon focused on Event Management, where technology meets creativity to transform how events are planned, organized, managed, and experienced.

Events bring people together for learning, networking, entertainment, business, celebrations, and community building. However, organizing a successful event involves much more than choosing a venue and inviting guests. Event organizers have to manage registrations, communication, budgets, schedules, vendors, teams, logistics, attendees, and unexpected challenges — often across multiple platforms.

This hackathon challenges participants to explore how technology can simplify and improve the event management process.

Whether it is helping organizers manage attendees, automating event communication, tracking budgets, coordinating teams, managing vendors, improving check-in, or creating better experiences for attendees, participants will have the opportunity to build practical technology solutions for real-world event management challenges.

Using Africa's Talking APIs such as SMS, USSD, Voice, Airtime, Payments, Insights, and Chat, participants will develop solutions that make events more efficient, accessible, engaging, and easier to manage.

Whether you are a developer, student, entrepreneur, designer, event professional, creative, or technology enthusiast, this hackathon is an opportunity to collaborate, innovate, and build solutions that can transform the events industry.

Why Attend?

🎯 Solve Real Event Management Challenges

Identify challenges faced by event organizers, attendees, vendors, speakers, and event teams and build technology-driven solutions to address them.

Examples include:

• Simplifying event registration

• Managing attendee information

• Automating event reminders

• Improving event check-in

• Coordinating event teams

• Managing event schedules

• Tracking event budgets and expenses

• Managing vendors and suppliers

📱 Make Event Communication Easier

Use communication technologies to keep attendees, speakers, organizers, and teams informed before, during, and after an event.

Examples:

• SMS event reminders

• USSD event information services

• Automated speaker notifications

• Event schedule updates

• Emergency or last-minute event announcements

• Attendee feedback through SMS or USSD

💰 Improve Event Budgeting and Payments

Build solutions that help event organizers manage finances and make payments more efficiently.

Examples:

• Event budget tracking platforms

• Expense management tools

• Digital payment solutions

• Vendor payment tracking

• Ticket payment systems

• Real-time financial dashboards

🤝 Improve Team and Vendor Coordination

Events require collaboration between organizers, volunteers, vendors, speakers, sponsors, and other stakeholders.

Build solutions that make coordination easier through:

• Task assignment

• Team communication

• Vendor management

• Staff coordination

• Event duty schedules

• Notifications and reminders

🎟️ Create Better Attendee Experiences

Technology can improve the attendee journey from registration to post-event engagement.

Build solutions that help attendees:

• Register for events

• Receive event information

• Navigate schedules

• Check in quickly

• Receive important updates

• Provide feedback

• Stay connected after the event

🚀 Learn Through Building

Gain hands-on experience building practical solutions while exploring how Africa's Talking APIs can be integrated into real-world applications.

🌐 Connect With Other Innovators

Collaborate with developers, creatives, entrepreneurs, event professionals, students, and technology enthusiasts who are passionate about solving real-world problems.

🏆 Showcase Your Solution

Present your solution, demonstrate what you have built, receive feedback, and connect with the wider Africa's Talking technology community.

Key Focus Areas

1. Event Registration & Ticketing

Build solutions that make registering for events faster, easier, and more accessible.

Examples:

• SMS or USSD event registration

• Digital ticketing platforms

• Automated registration confirmations

• Attendee database systems

• QR or code-based check-in systems

• Event capacity management

2. Event Communication

Create solutions that improve communication between organizers and attendees.

Examples:

• SMS event reminders

• USSD information services

• Automated event notifications

• Speaker and volunteer notifications

• Last-minute event updates

• Post-event communication

3. Event Budgeting & Payments

Develop tools that help organizers manage event finances.

Examples:

• Event budget management platforms

• Expense tracking systems

• Vendor payment management

• Ticket payment solutions

• Sponsorship tracking

• Real-time event financial dashboards

4. Event Logistics & Coordination

Build solutions that help organizers manage the many moving parts involved in an event.

Examples:

• Task management systems

• Volunteer coordination platforms

• Vendor management tools

• Event scheduling systems

• Equipment and resource tracking

• Team communication platforms

5. Attendee Experience & Engagement

Create innovative solutions that make events more engaging and enjoyable for attendees.

Examples:

• Interactive event platforms

• Attendee feedback systems

• Event information services

• Networking platforms

• Live polls and engagement tools

• Personalized event notifications

6. Event Analytics & Feedback

Use technology and data to help organizers understand how their events performed.

Examples:

• Attendance analytics

• Registration dashboards

• Attendee feedback systems

• Event performance reports

• Engagement tracking

• Post-event survey platforms

7. Accessibility & Inclusive Events

Explore ways technology can make events more accessible to different groups of people.

Examples:

• USSD-based event information for people without smartphones

• Voice-based event information

• SMS communication services

• Multilingual event information

• Accessible registration systems

• Technology that supports attendees with different needs

Target Attendees

This hackathon is open to:

• Software Developers and Engineers

• Students and Technology Enthusiasts

• Entrepreneurs and Startup Founders

• Event Planners and Event Managers

• Product Builders and Innovators

• Creatives and Digital Innovators

• Marketing and Communications Professionals

• Researchers

• Community Builders

• Anyone interested in using technology to improve events

No matter your background, if you have an idea for making events smarter, easier, more efficient, or more engaging, come build with us!

What to Expect

🚀 Hands-on Building: Turn event management challenges into practical technology solutions.

💡 Ideation: Identify real-world problems and develop innovative solutions around them.

🤝 Team Collaboration: Work with developers, creatives, entrepreneurs, event professionals, and other innovators.

📱 API Integration: Explore Africa's Talking APIs and integrate communication and payment technologies into your solution.

🎓 Mentorship & Feedback: Get guidance and feedback as you develop and refine your idea.

🏆 Recognition & Rewards: Showcase your solution and compete for exciting prizes and recognition.

🌐 Networking: Connect with members of the Women in Tech community, developers, industry professionals, and potential collaborators.

Solution Criteria:

• Use of Africa's Talking APIs: How effectively the project utilizes one or more of the Africa's Talking APIs i.e. SMS, USSD, Airtime, Voice, Insights, Chat.

• Innovation: The originality and creativity of the project idea and implementation.

• User Experience: How well the project meets user needs and provides an intuitive and seamless experience.

• Functionality: How well the project performs the intended functionality and handles errors and edge cases.

• Presentation: The clarity and effectiveness of the project demonstration and pitch.

• Impact: How effectively the solution addresses a real event management challenge and improves efficiency, communication, accessibility, cost management, or attendee experience.

New to Africa's Talking? Get started here.

Publish on Africa's Talking Marketplace

Marketplace : Publish your plugin/app for our customer and Call Back as a Service

Learn more about the Marketplace and connect with other builders in the community forum: https://community.africastalking.com/forum/marketplace-18239/

Developer Documentation (We welcome feedback)

THEME: Event Management

The winning solution will receive cash prizes as follows:

• Winner - $100

• 1st Runners Up - $50

• 2nd Runners Up - $25

Social Media give-aways too!

More exclusive prizes and giveaways to attendees.

Contribute to open-source.

Agenda:

1. Introductions

2. Overview

• Technical hands-on session

3. Ideation

• Form teams where need be.

• Feedback

4. Building and Testing: Teams develop their solutions, integrate Africa’s Talking APIs, test their ideas, and prepare their demonstrations.

5. Demonstration and Wrap-up

• Teams or individuals will demonstrate what they have hacked for feedback or adoption.

Note: Carry a laptop

Opportunities:

• Network

• Innovate

• Access to our Talent bench (You can get a job or a gig on the spot)

Join our community channels:

• Community Page:

  • Join Africa's Talking Women In Tech Community here

• Twitter (X):

  • Follow Our Page on X here

Africa's Talking powers communications solutions across Africa with simplified access to telco infrastructure, developers use our powerful SMS, USSD, Voice, Airtime and Data, Insights, and Chat APIs to bring their ideas to life, as they build and sustain scalable businesses.

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 quickly.

Would you like to partner with us? Kindly contact the Women in Technology Team. 

Everyone is welcome!