The Cortex Hub, an East London based ICT business incubator will be hosting South Africa’s first ever 72-hour women’s hackathon and technology conference. Aimed at showcasing the talents of women in software development and encouraging them to become involved in the world of technology through the creation of solutions using technology, the Women Hackers Unite Hackathon takes place from the 25^th to 27^th of August  at The Cortex Hub in East London’s Industrial Development Zone which is 5 minutes from the East London Airport. Women wanting to be a part of South Africa’s first ever 72-hour women’s hackathon and technology conference have just three days left to register. 

For those not familiar with tech community parlance, A hackathon is an event - typically lasting several days - where a large number of people come together to test and showcase their skills in collaborative computer programming contests. A team of computer programmers involved in software and hardware development create solutions to challenges put forward by the hackathon organisers. The Women Hackers Unite Hackathon is ideal for programmers, graphic designers, interface designers and project managers who collaborate extensively on software projects.

Organisers of the hackathon expect over 100 women from South Africa and East and West Africa to participate.  These include students from all the universities, entry-level employees in the private sector, freelance software and hard developers, as well as women working for Government and NGOs from all over Africa. 

The only criteria are that a woman must have a good understanding of creating software solutions and must be hungry to use those skills to solve women’s problems. All women are welcome to join the hackathon and witness the coders create their solutions or take part in the women’s conference which takes  place alongside the hackathon. The conference, which focuses on issues affecting women in terms of leadership, entrepreneurship, work/life balance and more will draw on successful women to share their experiences, and discuss their journeys in a number of panel sessions.

Andile Ngcaba, Dimension Data’s Middle East & Africa Executive Chairman says, “The Cortex Hub is looking for teams of women who can compete at international hackathons such as Google Code Jam, Facebook hackathon, Kaggel competition and International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC). In today’s software environment, countries and companies need to be able to compete on an international level.”

“Ngcaba aims to encourage coding and hacking in schools among women in South Africa, and plans are to start these hackathons at a high school level.”

For more information contact Sivu +2772 901 5183.

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