Black Enterprise Challenges HBCU Teams To Hackathon At Its TechConneXt Summit

NEW YORK, Sept. 30, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Black Enterprise will present its annual Black Enterprise TechConneXt Summit on Monday, Oct.10 through Tuesday, Oct.11, at the San Francisco Marriott Waterfront Hotel, with presenting sponsors AT&T Inc., Intel Corp. and Toyota. 

The Summit will include a live BE SMART hackathon hosted by Toyota with 10 groups of junior and senior students from HBCUs: Alabama A&M University, Florida A&M University, Hampton University, Howard University, Johnson C. Smith University, Morehouse College, Morgan State University, North Carolina A&T University, Southern University and A&M College, and Tuskegee University. Each team will be made up of experienced hackers.

We will challenge the 10 teams of hackers to use their creativity to develop an app. Judging for the hackathon will take place in two rounds by an elite group of judges, where each team will consult with one of the judges, who will then determine which teams will present. Teams will be judged based on the viability of the app, its utility to individual users, and the efficacy of the technological platform. The hackathon is sponsored by Toyota.

During the Summit, the teams of students will also be taken to the AT&T Foundry; a center of innovation where employees of the multinational telecommunications corporation devise questions, hatch ideas, and try out compelling solutions to customer problems and difficulties affecting the wider world. The students will also be visiting LinkedIn, the professional network with more than 450 million members worldwide. At LinkedIn the students will receive expert tips from LinkedIn employees on how to create and optimize a LinkedIn profile that will help them put their best professional foot forward.

Black Enterprise TechConneXt is a hard-hitting, two-day Summit that brings together leaders from Silicon Valley and the surrounding tech ecosystem to exchange ideas and provide information about the professional and entrepreneurial opportunities that exist across all areas of technology.

The Summit will feature nationally recognized tech leaders and showcase the latest new products and solutions for today. The Summit will provide attendees with the relationships, access, resources, and motivation needed to achieve real success in the industry. Confirmed speakers include Tristan Walker, founder and CEO, Walker & Co.; Ime Archibong, director, Global Product Partnership, Facebook; Ryan Leslie, CEO, Mozrt; Ty Ahmad-Taylor, CEO, THX Ltd.; Stewart Butterfield, CEO and co-founder, SLACK, and Stacy Brown-Philpot, CEO, TaskRabbit, and more.

This year's TechConneXt Summit will also cover topics such as cybersecurity, millennial tech stars, diversity, keys to Silicon Valley success, innovation showcases, powerhouse conversations, and more. To register and find out more information, visit www.blackenterprise.com/techconnext.

The 2016 TechConneXt Summit is presented by AT&T, Intel Corp., and Toyota. Platinum sponsors include American Airlines, Microsoft, and Prudential. Corporate sponsors Dell Technologies, FedEx Corp., Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Lockheed Martin, MillerCoors, Moet Hennessy USA, Nationwide, Symantec Corp. Technology partners Airbnb, IBM, Fitbit Inc. and Strategic Partner Kapor Center for Social Impact.

SOURCE BLACK ENTERPRISE

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