Visitor Economy focused hackathon to develop tech solutions to bring more people to our island and improve their experience.

A weekend-long hackathon competition that will unite industry experts, developers, entrepreneurs, government officials and students to develop innovative solutions and Apps to improve Puerto Rico’s destination experience and boost the local economy organized by Foundation for Puerto Rico and Link Puerto Rico.

Hackathon Agenda: 

Time Item
7:30 AM Production & Volunteer Staff Meeting
7:45 AM Seating, Internet & Electric Walkthrough
8:00 AM Registration & Continental Breakfast Table Setup
8:30 AM Hacker Registration & Continental Breakfast Begin
9:15 AM Introduction
9:30 AM Official Challenges Presentation
9:45 AM Mentor Introduction & API Orientation
10:00 AM Team Building Exercise
11:00 AM Official Hacking Begins
11:30 AM Technical API, DataSet and Framework Training
12:00 AM Mentor Session 1
12:30 PM Lunch Served
1:30 PM Hacking, Mentorship and Technical Training Continues
3:00 PM Coffee & Snacks
5:00pm -5:30pm Stretch & Yoga basics
6:00 PM Dinner Served
6:30 PM Guest Barista & Biscotti
7:00pm-9:00pm Mentor Session II
9:00-10:00pm Karaoke or Games 
11:00pm-12:00am Pizza Served
2:00 AM Ice Cream & Cookies
3:00am-6:00am Continue Hacking or Take a Nap
6:30-7am Sun Salutations and Morning Stretch
7-8am Warm Breakfast
9:00am-10:30am Mentor Session III
12:15am Hackathon Ends - Hackers should submit all presentation and project materials
12:30pm Lunch Boxes Served
2:00pm-3:15pm Hacker Presentations to Judges Begin (3 minutes each)
3:15 PM Judges convene to discuss results and select winners
3:30 PM Award Ceremony (Ceremonial Gift Certificate to Winners)
4:00-5:30pm Beer, Wine & Tapas Celebration Reception

View full rules

Eligibility

Participants:

  • To participate you must register for free in eventbrite and be physically in the Colaboratorio location. No remote participation will be allowed for this year's event.
  • Team size can range from 2-4 people.
  • Participants must develop solutions that focus on the visitor economy/tourism only. Any unrelated submissions will not be considered.

 

 

Requirements

The table below shows the suggested Visitor Economy challenges you can work on:

  • To ensure you qualify, please refer to the Challenges on the table below
Challenge Title Challenge Description
Visitor Economy Open Develop an innovative solution that transforms Puerto Rico into a Destination for the world. Solutions have to solve either visitor or stakeholder pains to qualify.
Digital Presence Management Business owners have trouble keeping their information updated in multiple travel platforms. For example, when a business wants to change its regular opening hours it has to do so in Facebook, Google , TripAdvisor , their own website, Yelp, etc. Aditionally, when many of the venues close the business owner does not report them closed.
Develop a solution that facilitates the way business owners update their information simultaneously, preferably from one single place. You can use VIEWPR as the centralize datahub.
Visitor Activity Transparency Puerto Rico as a destination does not have habit or an entity to keep track of our visitors and their profile. Historically the only data available was compiled in the visitor survey, and the last survey took place in 2012. The lack of information on our visitor’s profiles and activity impacts our ability to create the right products and design marketing strategies.
We want to know what visitors do before, during and after they visit PR? Where do they stay? Which places they visit? How much do they spend? What are their profiles? The information is out there in multiple platforms and gov. agencies. How can we compile it? Can we improve the way we survey our visitors? Can we get more insights from traveler’s reviews to generate destination intelligence? Can be solved through technology?
Improve the Visitor Experience Our community can thrive if more visitors explore our more authentic experiences, but how can they do it with the most correct, inspiring and smart information. Travelers around the world use their phone and internet to dream, plan, explore and share. Help them find what more appealing to them, guide them through the process, connect them to their providers or the community.
Develop a solution that improves the way travelers navigate, explore and discover Puerto Rico. This can be done through an App, gamification, AR and VR tools. The only restriction is your imagination.
Content Distribution We need to spread awareness that our island is open for visitors. How can we improve PR's image abroad? How can we let people know what our travel offer is and inspire them to explore it? How can we automatize this process?
Visitor Economy Open Develop an innovative solution that transforms Puerto Rico as a Destination for the world. Solutions have to solve either visitor or stakeholder pains to qualify.

Judges

Damaris Ocasio

Damaris Ocasio
VIEWPR Lead and CFO at Foundation for PR

Ben Gundersen

Ben Gundersen
Senior Software Engineer at TripAdvisor

Fabian Velez

Fabian Velez
President and CEO at Link Puerto Rico

Felix Lugo

Felix Lugo
Country Manager at C&W Buisness

Luis Torres

Luis Torres
Co-Founder at Engine 4

Judging Criteria

  • Visitor Economy Focused (25%)
    Solution must be related to the Visitor Economy focused. To learn more about what the term Visitor Economy means please go to the following link: https://www.foundationforpuertorico.org/visitoreconomy/
  • API Usage (+5%)
    Can you improve the discoverability and digital presence of our travel assets with the API's provided? How many data sets did you include? *You may only receive +5% for the integration regardless of the quantity.
  • Functionality and Operability (25%)
    Does your MVP work?
  • Presentation Quality (10%)
    Can you explain clearly and efficiently what your solution is?
  • Originality, creativity, innovation y proficiency (20%)
    How original, creative and innovative is your solution compared to others?
  • Project difficulty and complexity (20%)
    How complex is your project compared to others?