Update: This contest is now closed. The lucky winner of the GS5 and Gear 2 is Twitter follower John Holland who stated his tech pain point is “1 app 4 flyers + 1 app 4 shopping list + 1 app 4 banking + 0 app to tie ’em all together!”
Hundreds of hackathons take place every year in Toronto, but not all of them offer real business opportunities to coders after they collect prizes and pack up their gear.
The upcoming MasterCard N>XT Developer Challenge could be a gamechanger for tech startups. Finalists will have a chance to pitch their idea to executives from Rogers, Samsung, MasterCard, BMO, CIBC, Moneris and more. And mentorship will be available for all teams from organizations like Microsoft BizSpark, VentureLab and Bionym.
This year’s hackathon from Oct 4 – 5 will bring together 150 developers to lead the retail revolution. The challenge is to build an application that works online or in-store and on your wrist to enhance the customer retail experience, and winning teams will take home $30,000 in prizing. What’s more, Samsung will be giving away a Samsung Gear and smartphone to each member of the top 5 teams who create a solution integrated with the Gear devices. In addition, one of the top teams (chosen by Samsung) will get to see their Retail Solution implemented within a Samsung store.
As a sponsor of the MasterCard N>XT developer challenge, we’re hosting a contest for a chance to win a Rogers Samsung Galaxy S5 and Gear 2. This contest ends October 3rd and is only open to residents of Canada. To enter, tweet us about your tech pain points when shopping, or how you currently use apps when shopping to make your life easier. Make sure to include the hashtag #MasterCardNXT.
After last year’s hackathon, MasterCard hired winning team, Tulip Retail, to design the software used at the Priceless Toronto Zone at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre. Tulip’s program made it possible for fans to easily purchase merchandise during a game from their mobile device. Without MasterCard N>XT, execs at MasterCard wouldn’t have known about Tulip’s expertise in the retail tech space.
Your ideas and tweets could be shared with hackers at MasterCard N>XT. Developer registration is now open for MasterCard N>XT here. Check out the video below to see what took place at last year’s challenge.
MobileSyrup may earn a commission from purchases made via our links, which helps fund the journalism we provide free on our website. These links do not influence our editorial content. Support us here.
