In the Fall of 2013, community leaders and successful entrepreneurs, Julia Klein and John Weidenhammer,conferred aboutthe many initiatives that are underway in Berks County to createjobs, to fuel economic growth, to ignite technology development and deployment, to encourage innovation in education and training, to enhance the delivery of healthcareand to solve many of the social and community challengesthat are typical of communities like Berks County.
Julia, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Reading Health System, shared with John, also a Reading Health System Board member, her concerns about the challenging healthcare market. They agreed that something more can be done to address the challenge of assuring that our community is responsibly and affordably served for healthcare needs.
Their idea was to organize the first ever community-wide Hackathon in Berks County with a slant towards healthcare, but not be restricted to healthcare related problems and solutions. The goals are to provide an opportunity for innovators, developers and like minded people to come together in the Hackathon environment to tackle interesting problems and concepts and for the Hackathon to further establish Berks County as a place where innovation and technology development happens and is encouraged.
For those new to the Hackathon concept, a Hackathon is generally a weekend long event at which programmers, software developers, inventors, makers, IT experts, and others come together to work in teams to solve a problem or to develop an innovative concept by developing a software application or some related technology- based solution. The teams work on their concept throughout the weekend, and on Sunday, the teams present their results to a group of judges who then award prizes to those deemed best according to specified category criteria. It's a high energy, tech intensive, learning and sharing event that stimulates creative thinking in a positive and innovative structure.
So, at the urging of Julia Klein and John Weidenhammer, an organizing committee was formed to make it happen. The committee, which is being led by Ray Melcher, Director of the Berks County Jump Start Business Incubator, consists of Reading Health System executives, representatives from the Berks County based colleges and universities, representatives from various economic development and business support organizations, university professors and graduate students, and IT professionals. It is truly a community -wide representation of organizers. The intent is for the Hackathon concept to be continued as an annual event.
The Berks Hackathon at Reading Health System will happen March 28 - 30, 2014 and the venue will be the Reading Hospital Conference Center.
Registration and more information about the 2014 Berks Hackathon can be found at
www.berkshackathon.com.
Download a flyer to share with your neighbors and community
here.
