With an aim to create digital solutions for better city life, a Smart City Hackathon will be held for the first time in Bangladesh. Jointly organized by Preneur Lab, and White-board (an initiative of Grameenphone) the hackathon will be held at GPHouse, on November 11-12, 2016.

The Smart City Hackathon will run nonstop for 36 hours through which tech professionals, including coders, designers and innovators, will try to develop and implement innovative ideas to solve the problems of Dhaka City.

Dhaka, one of the largest mega-cities in the world, is also among the list of least livable cities. Overcoming Dhaka’s abysmal problems calls for disruptive thinkers and innovators to find solutions with the help of Information and communication technology.

The event will host 30 teams with maximum of four or minimum of three members. The teams will work to develop ideas and implement it as a software (web/mobile app), hardware solution, or AI. For each team there will be a mentor who will guide them throughout the process.

Interested teams can register through www.white-board.co by November 5, 2016.The selected teams will be notified via email of their confirmation and participation.

Speaking at the program, Yasir Azman, CMO Grameenphone said, “On our Digital journey, we are constantly learning and improving. The best learning opportunities come from the community. The SmartCity Hackathon is a great platform to learn, co-create and incubate great ideas, and we believe White-board can play an enabling role. This will be the first ever 36-hour hackathon at GP House. In the coming days White-Board will be driving more engagements to support the digital eco –system of Bangladesh.”

The winning team of the Smart City Hackathon will win three months co-working space at White-Board with access to GP’s digital ecosystem. White-Board will provide relevant knowledge and asset support to solidify the winning prototype. A special demo day will be arranged through White-Board for commercial presentation. A 6-month start-up mentorship support will be provided by Preneur Lab in addition to 6-month mentorship from IEEE BDS and IPR, as well as incubation support from Dnet (Junction). There will be funding opportunity up to BDT 2.5 million each from Spider Digital (Dubai) and the ICT Division of the MOPT respectively. The winner will also get media support from The Daily Ittefaq and Radio Foorti.

Arif Nezami, CEO of Preneur Lab said “Smart Dhaka will be fast, modern and improved. This initiative between the City Corporation, the government, innovators and the telcos will together build something great. This opportunity should not be missed.”

The strategic partners of the program are Dhaka North City Corporation and the ICT Division of Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and ICT; Knowledge Partners: IEEE BD Section, IoT Council Europe; Media Partner: Radio Foorti, Daily Ittefaq, and Bikroy.com; Community Partner: Google Developer Group, Mozilla Bangladesh, User Hub, Women Techmakers; Investment Partner: Spider Digital (Dubai).

White-Board is an eco-system enabler, where the digital explorers meet, greet, collaborate and drive the digital eco-system. The very first of its kind, White-Board is Grameenphone’s center for digital transformation. It allows startups to find and exchange views with like-minded people so that everyone gets to share and grow their knowledge simultaneously.