I am sure you have all heard about the Random Hacks of Kindness Hackathon that TAG is hosting here at Concordia on the 11th floor. The project is the brainchild of Angelique Mannella, who I am sure you have seen around the TAG lab. Angelique recently moved back to Canada from Finland, and decided to launch her own venture called DECODE GLOBAL, which was inspired from her own work experience in Bolivia during her undergrad. DECODE is a venture that provides international opportunities for young technologists to developing mobile apps for social change.
The inaugural event for DECODE will be the Random Hacks of Kindness Hackathon, which will host up to 70 people all trying to design games for social change. UNICEF will support the event by acting as a knowledge partner. The participants of the event will also be exploring the ways that game mechanics can facilitate in game donations.
The event will kick off with a 5 à 7 on June 1st, and then officially start on June 2nd at 9AM. See the site for a detailed schedule. There will also be workshops – the storyboard pro workshop will run on June 1st at 3PM. The judges for the event will be industry veterans Miguel Caron, and Jason Della Rocca, as well as game enthusiast Rochelle Rinne and UNICEF’s Marianne Cuierrier. Prizes are awarded in one of three categories – Judges Choice – Spirit of the Event – Audience Choice. Prizes range from Nokia phones to strange Taiwanese knick-knacks.
Directly following Random Hacks of Kindness Angelique’s Incubator project called Games for Social Change will run in the TAG labs from June 4th to August 31st. For this project Angelique selected a number of young humanitarians from the Ukraine, Brazil, Finland and the United States to work together and have the opportunity to brainstorm, co-create, and innovate. During the Incubator Industry mentors will work with the creators on a regular basis. We will organize monthly 5 à 7’s, where everyone can mingle.