Name: Techfugees Melbourne
Start: 2016-04-15T05:00:00.000-04:00
End: 2016-04-17T01:45:00.000-04:00
Location: Techfugees Melbourne

Pitch Session Live Stream! (from 14:00 AEST, Sunday 17th of April)

Following the success of the Techfugees hackathon in Sydney last November, it's Melbourne's turn!

The Techfugees Melbourne Hackathon will bring together developers, designers, entrepreneurs and community members to develop creative tech solutions to help refugee families settle into the Australian community.

Former refugees who have already settled in Australia will participate in the event to help teams deeply understand problems and challenges faced by new settlers and co-design solutions.

Leaders from the tech community will mentor teams through the weekend. On Sunday afternoon, teams will pitch their solutions to a judges panel of tech and community leaders.

The event will be hosted by our sponsors at LaunchPad in Richmond.

Come make a difference, have some fun, learn a lot and help to welcome refugees to the Australian community.

Looking for inspiration on what to work on over the weekend? Check out the Techfugees Hackpad for projects that need help!

Join us online on facebook.com/techfugeesaustralia & twitter @techfugeesaust1 and following the #Hack4Refugees hashtag

Coffee will be supplied during the event by the wonderful folks at Wide Open Road.

Pitch Ceremony food and drink sponsored by the team at Stripe.

About Techfugees

Moved by the plight of refugees in Europe, a number of technology industry people have formed a voluntary team to create the series of non-profit “Techfugees” conferences, hackathons, and work with a global network of collaborators.

Today there are now over 2,000 members of Techfugees, demonstrating a huge desire amongst the tech community to get involved with this issue.

Our events are entirely non-profit, designed to bring together tech engineers, entrepreneurs and startups together with NGOs and other agencies in order to address the crisis in ways where the technology world can bring its considerable firepower.

Eligibility

Only registered participants are elible http://techfugeesmelbourne.eventbrite.com

We need Hackers, Hipsters Hustlers and Humanitarians to form teams, as well as mentors to help the teams!

Team Size: Minimum of 4 - Maximum of 6

During our welcome event on Friday evening 15 April, we encourage you to team up with individuals with different skill sets (software, design, product dev) and work on a challenge that everybody wants to solve.

We have posted a link to the Problem statements and check the Techfugees Hackpad for projects that also need help!

We have some great sources of data from data.vic.gov.au to assist

We have some great mentors too

Requirements

You need to submit by 2:00pm on Sunday 17 April. Be sure to include the following:

A team name
A team icon, image, or logo
Upload the proposal onto DevPost before 2:00pm on Sunday 17 April, 2016
Post source code (if any) to github
Deliver a five minute pitch to judges and allow five minutes for Q&A

Problem statement themes

Disability access and support
The inability of people with a disability to know about and access support.

Employment
Lack of recognition of qualifications; lack of work references and Australian employment experience.

Entrepreneurship
Lack of ability to access support to become familiar with systems, knowledge and networks to start own business in Australia.

Food security
Lack of income for many asylum seekers and refugees on low incomes is a daily issue for prioritising seeking employment, transport, children’s needs and food

Health
Many refugees and asylum seekers experience chronic illness and yet are unaware of the range of medical services to support them.

Housing
Insecure housing as a result of limited income, overcrowding, exploitation acts as a major barrier to the successful long term settlement for people.

Language
Without English proficiency or access to interpreters, refugees and asylum seekers are disadvantaged yet only some categories of visas are allowed to access the maximum of 510 hours of English classes.

Legal system
People at the time of arrival cannot be expected to know all the elements of Australia’s legal system and may break laws here that did not exist in their home country.

Migration advice
Access to skilled and qualified legal advocates is critical and yet, as a result of demand, is not available to everyone seeking asylum.

Migration hub
Access to services provided by migration hubs are important but transport and time can be a problem.

Qualifications
The lack of recognition of skills and qualifications gained overseas wastes the lives of refugees and asylum seekers as they are unable to work in their area of expertise. Australia’s productivity is also disadvantaged.

Tracing to Family Reunion
The dramatic increase in global migration has led to rising numbers of families being separated along perilous routes through diverse countries

Translating and interpreting
Without access to interpreters, refugees and asylum seekers with limited English are unable to negotiate systems, access services or understand critical information about themselves and yet funding for interpreting services is diminishing and many people are not offered access.

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$10,150 in prizes

Winner Prize

* $5,000 cash prize from LaunchVic to go towards development of the winning solution.
* All members of the winning team will receive $250 credit for any General Assembly course.

1st Runner-Up Prize

* Runner up prize package of $3,000 sponsored by LawPath includes a free company registration, 12 month subscription to 200+ customisable legal documents and a $300 discount off the first legal quote.
* $70 credit for any General Assembly course.

2nd Runner-Up prizes

$250 cash from InnovAction.
$35 credit for any General Assembly course.

People's Choice Award - Get your online votes in!

Get your votes in by creating and logging into your DevPost account and voting for your favorite submission.

Winners of the People's Choice Award will receive $250 cash from InnovAction and 2 free, 1 hour advisor sessions from Startup Mentors.

How to enter

Please register at http://techfugeesmelbourne.eventbrite.com

We need Hackers, Hipsters Hustlers and Humanitarians to form teams, as well as mentors to help the teams!

We have posted a link to the Problem statements and check the Techfugees Hackpad for projects that also need help!

We have some great sources of data from data.vic.gov.au to assist

We have some great mentors too

If you are looking for a pitch deck, here's what the Techfugees folks in Sydney used

It will help if you create a profile on DevPost before the start of the Hackathon (you will need a profile before submitting your ideas)

Judges

Jackie Coates
Telstra Foundation - National Manager

Judy Slatyer
Australian Red Cross - CEO

Will Richardson
Impact Investment Group - Chief Investment Officer

Peter Kelly
AMES Australia - Marketing and Communications Manager

Ian Gardiner
Amazon Web Services - Startup Business Development

Judging Criteria

Product/Market Fit
Who is your customer (Refugee/Service Organisation etc)? How well does the product fit the needs of the problem the team chose to tackle? How user-friendly is the technology? Is it a complete solution, or do they still have a long way to go?
Potential Impact
How much impact (quality and quantity) could the solution have?
Creativity/Innovation/Wow Factor
How innovative/creative/unique is the hack? Does the hack employ a new/novel approach to solving the problem?
Feasibility & Sustainability
What are your barriers to entry or user adoption? How are you addressing those challenges? What is your rollout strategy? Is it scalable and self-sustaining?
Accomplishment & Learning
How much did they accomplish in the weekend? Did they demonstrate learning from mentors to help inform a better solution? Did the demo test core assumptions?
Team Pitch
How well did the team explain their solution? How well did the demo communicate the idea?