Travel&Tourism Hackathon

Travel&Tourism Hackathon 2016 Results

2016-12-05


The winners of Travel & Tourism Hackaton were the team “Challengers”

They presented their unique project on how in the form of a game tourists can get acquainted with the culture and life of the Kyrgyz people.


At the American University in Central Asia, the tourist hackathon has come to an end, which has become a place where experienced experts from different spheres shared their experience with young children, eager to contribute to the development of the tourism industry.


For 54 hours people who did not know each other broke up into teams and worked on creating a project from scratch to the stage of a ready operating technological product.


Participants worked almost without sleep all this time. During the day, they met mentors and received feedback from them about the project, and at night they worked to fix these errors.


“We worked very well in the team. Despite the fact that we had the largest team, we all managed to find a common language and work on the creation of our project. Mentors undoubtedly helped a lot, asked leading questions, thereby showing what to work on and with their help we brought the project to the end result, “Faradj Musayev, a member of the” Challengers “team, said.


It is worth noting that, as the expert from Russia Konstantin Kirsanov suggested, the final projects differed from those that the children presented on the first day of the hakaton.
“All projects are quite real and necessary for Kyrgyzstan. Now tourism is moving in a different direction, and the guys just picked up these trends and, taking into account them, developed projects that will be of interest to tourists in Kyrgyzstan, “one of the jury members Atay Sadybakasov said.


One of the mentors of the hakaton, Chingiz Kanatbek, noted that all participants adequately perceived criticism in their address.
“They have a desire to learn and become better. The guys are very active and ambitious. From the point of view of marketing, they had one problem – lack of marketing. That is, they concentrated on advertising, and not on marketing strategies, which is important. However, after they were given a referral, they began to move on it and filled this gap, “said the founder of the branding agency” Mozgami “Chingiz Kanatbek.


Director of the Department of Tourism Azamat Zhamankulov noted for himself projects that have the potential to enter the global market.
“It was interesting for us to gather young people and see what ideas they have in this regard and what IT solutions they can offer. Today I saw not only regional ideas, but also several ideas that have the potential to enter the global market, “Azamat Zhamankulov said.


Despite the fact that all projects were developed with dignity, the ability to pitch, that is, be able to clearly present your project for one minute, highlighting the most important and interesting, was an equally important part in the evaluation criteria of teams. According to the speeches of some participants, it seemed that they were just born to present the projects. Speakers could in one minute win not only the attention of the public and jury members, but also made it clear that it was their project, like no other, that would become an assistant to tourists on a trip to Kyrgyzstan.
“Hakaton forces us to create something new for the world. Today I saw such projects, which have great potential. Second – the hakaton teaches you to strain. The guys practically did not sleep for 54 hours and during this time they worked hard on the projects. The skill of pitching is also very important and here you have been shown how to do it right. It’s great that you were so “pumped” here. It does not matter whether you won or not, but you learned to give the result by the right time. This is an excellent quality! “, – said one of the judges, the founder of Ololoohaus Daniyar Amanaliev.


The projects presented to the judges concerned different spheres of the tourism industry: these are cognitive applications that in the game form told about myths and legends of Kyrgyzstan, online resources for finding guides with specific skills: a guide-photographer, a guide-musician, a guide-ecologist and. . D, and much more.

But most of the audience remembered two teams – “Chuck-Chuck” and “Challengers”, which impressed not only the relevance of the developed product, but also its delivery. “Chuck-Chuck” presented a bot chat for Telegram, which is able to provide online information to tourists during their stay in the Kyrgyz Republic. The bot is able to provide information on the most important categories, starting from the prices for trips between cities and ending with an English-Kyrgyz phrase book. “Challengers” presented a platform that should become an application in the future, where the user can go through various quests, thus acquainting himself with the culture and life of our country. On the map, you can select an icon with an available quest. So, for example, a tourist can independently put a yurt, cook koumiss or a national dish and much more. All this is done under the control of skilled people. For completed quests, the user receives points, which can later be exchanged for discounts in partner shops of the project.

The fact that the “Challengers” will win the “People’s Choice Award” thanks to their dynamic presentation – there was no doubt. The audience gave more votes to this team. As for the decision of the judging team, the second place was awarded to the team “Chuck-Chuck”. And the main victory and the title of “The best project of Travel & Tourism Hackaton” rightfully went to “Challengers”. The most numerous team won twice.
“It was insanely productive 54 hours for which we were able to create our own project. We are grateful to the organizers of the Public Fund “KG Labs” for such a wonderful event. Special thanks to mentors and speakers who gave us valuable advice and told us many new and interesting things. Participation in this hakaton – a great experience for us “, – shared the impressions of the participants of the winning team.


The winners and prize-winners of the tourist hakaton were awarded valuable gifts and prizes. In addition, the winning team was given the opportunity to present its project at the Bishkek Investment Forum, which will soon be held in the capital. The silver medalists immediately received an offer of cooperation from investors immediately after the event.


“The event was wonderful! We are satisfied with the number of participants and projects, as well as the level of involvement of all teams. All participants are good fellows, very productively worked. Many thanks to our mentors who helped the teams and shared with the children the experience that they can apply in the further implementation of the project “, – summed up the event organizer, the founder of KG Labs Public Foundation Aziz Soltobaev.


Organizers of the event: KG Labs Public Foundation, whose mission is to promote technological entrepreneurship in the Kyrgyz Republic; American University in Central Asia is the leading innovation university in Central Asia; And start-up-incubator “Ideagrad”.
Partners of the project: Business Association of Young Entrepreneurs “JIA”, as well as the Tourism Department of the Ministry of Culture, Information and Tourism of the Kyrgyz Republic.
This project is supported by the Democratic Commission of the US Embassy in the Kyrgyz Republic and the USAID Business Development Initiative.