Foursquare Hack Day was a day of fun, thrill and indulging experience for aspiring developers. It was a day of come true, a day where geeks collide and share the same aim – for hackathon! As the hack day unfolds it’s dream; WebGeek’s Technology Evangelist Ken Daganio heat up the stage and present the guest speakers for the very first Foursquare Hackathon. 

First on the list is Chito Bustamante, the Group Head of Product development in SMART. He never let the audience down with their expectations; but he boosts them up, his words of encouragements started off with questions such as "Who among you is a part of a hackateam?", "Who here is an entrepreneur?", "Who among you guys work from 9-5?” and "Who among you guys are searching for a job?". He also asked ‘how many hackathons participated within the year’, and he exclaimed, “I think we need to do more”. After all of the awe-inspiring words, he then discussed SMART’s goals and contributions regarding the promotion of internet and mobile community.

Next in the row is Cyril Vendivil, a Junior Developer on SMART platform services. Vendivil focused about the SMART’s Network API which has SMS Sending, MMS Sending and Location Based Services. After all of the discussion, he never missed to show the audience a quick demo of an application which used the API.

It is the moment to meet the third and last speaker, Sajid Mehmood, a Software Engineer at Foursquare who centered his attention on the Foursquare Platform. He introduced the audience regarding the basics of the Foursquare API. He discussed and ran series of information which developers’ application can gain when using the API. Sajid Mehmood also led the participants an overview; he also showed what methods and developments were used in the Foursquare API to create each of the applications presented.

Ken guides the participants towards the rules and regulations of the event; he also acknowledged the sponsors. Later then he presented Hackathon’s theme, “It’s more fun in the Philippines”. After all of the introductory addresses made, the nine-hour event started with the theme bannered on front. Both Sajid and Ken talked to the teams to give them insights and entertain some of the participant’s questions regarding the event criteria.

All were full after the dinner and prepared their selves for the demo night at 8pm; the teams were prepared and all hacked for nine hours.

Cleverness and intelligence was seen in Filipino developers and geeks, and it was witnessed by many during the event. After nine hours of developing, innovating and resourcing, each teams demonstrated their apps on stage one by one. The event’s panel of judges were Internet Pioneer’s Migz Paraz and Dave Quitoriano, William Yu of Novare; Sajid Mehmood from Foursquare; and Bryan Bibat, VP for Technology of DevCon Philippines.

The teams presented their works for maximum of three hours (per team) and two minutes of question and answer thrown by the judges. Hours of excitement turns to its peak.

Team Triple A (AAA) composed with Aci Cartagena, Danielle Padilla and Mikko Asis grabs the first place and hits the grand prize. Their winning-app was “PicXplorer” which instantly creates a “More Fun in the Philippines” poster from photos posted on venue near your location or a pinned location.

Next to the top is Team Zinder part of them were Dexter Brylle Matos, Marco Padillo and Hybus Ursua; they empowered social good app namely “8 Small Things”. The app mainly aims to “make Philippines more fun by doing little things associated to the United Nation’s Millenium Development Goals for 2015.”

Next in rank is Self Servants, they were Melvin Fetalvero, Jason Sia and Mai Cervantes bringing their pride “It’s More Fun in The Philippines  Experience” app which enables users to grant quest-like location based experiences. The app is described by the team as An Alternative Reality Game which brings famous experiences in to the Philippines Context”

Foursquare Hack Day Philippines was the very first hack day event done outside United States. But all were possible! SMARTDevNet (Smart Developer Network) in partnership with WebGeek brought Foursquare Sajid Mehmood to be on hand.

It has been a fun and an exciting event; SMART DevNet and WebGeek Philippines thanked the event’s sponsors, speakers, judges, volunteers and participants. Without their individual and group efforts, the event would have been impossible. They gave inspiration, experience and insights not just for the participants but also to the tech and developers’ community; they share the same spirit and aim of promoting and building hackathon to the country.