Appathon UK

Founders4Schools, one of the organisers of Appathon UK, have been in touch with Generation Innovation to say they are really keen to hear from Northern Ireland schools for this annual competition, which invites young people to think of an idea for an app that they would like to use in their daily lives. 

School students need to upload brief video pitches of their ideas to the Appathon UK website by Thursday October 9 2014, where the general public will be encouraged to vote for the best ideas.

In mid-October, university students will select an app idea from these video pitch submissions, and work to build a prototype during an ‘appathon’ weekend. These apps will be judged in the national Appathon UK competition, and finalists will be invited to celebrate their achievements at an awards ceremony at the House of Commons during Global Entrepreneurship Week.

Both school and university students who participate will be eligible to win prizes from Appathon UK partners and prize sponsors.

There will be over three million new jobs to be created by the app economy alone in the next five years. Appathon UK hopes to inspire students to create their own solutions to challenges they see around them. The goal of the competition is to encourage students to be creators, not  just consumers, of technology - and help to prepare them for the jobs of the future.

Michael Acton Smith, CEO of Mind Candy and a supporter of the competition, said of the Appathon, “This is a wonderful initiative that will tap into the creativity of students throughout the country. We can't wait to see what they create and hope we get a chance to work with the creators at Mind Candy."

For more information, click to visit the Appathon UK website.