This past weekend, the memphis tech community got together at the Fedex Institute of technology on the University of Memphis campus for the fifth annual HackMemphis event. HackMemphis, organized by the Memphis Technology Foundation, is a different kind of hackathon where there’s no pressure and teams are free to work on whatever they want. Some of the city’s best developers, designers, makers, and tech leaders get together for a weekend to hang out and work on fun projects.
Projects included a virtual reality cycling game, a working R2-D2 robot made from a plastic jar with 3d printed parts and a camera, a wifi enabled system for brewing beer, and a flappy bird game built with the Go programming language. My favorite part of HackMemphis, aside from the chance to spend time with memtech friends, is helping new developers with their projects, introducing them to the other seasoned developers in the room, encouraging them to get involved in more memtech events, and inspiring them to continue to pursue programming as a passion.
This year stood out because of a large AutoZone presence. AutoZone, headquartered in Memphis, was the event’s second ever diamond sponsor and showed out in force. Around ten AutoZone employees participated in the event and AutoZone’s CEO, CIO, and a number of other IT decision makers from the company were present at the event throughout the weekend to see the action. This represents the most significant engagement by a local IT industry leader with the memtech community that I can recall and signals that this collective of practicing professionals and enthusiasts is getting the attention of Memphis employers.
Read about HackMemphis 2017 in the Commercial Appeal
Check out HackMemphis pictures on facebook
Read about NodeBots day hosted by HackMemphis
Follow HackMemphis on facebook and twitter
Special thanks to the sponsors who made HackMemphis possible
