Hollywood Hackathon Final Recap

“It’s like a party, you are afraid that no one will show up”

Rahim Sonawalla mentioned to me about his fears about putting together Hollywood Hack A Day. But boy did they show up. While Kyle was in Memphis for a Launch event this past weekend, I was on the West Coast. More specifically Hollywood California to witness Hollywood Hack Day taking place at io/LA which was nice enough to provide their location to use for the weekend. Put together by Ryan Chisholm, Rahim Sonawalla and Abe Burns, this weekends event expected around around 70 developers, graphic artist, and visionaries to show up. Battling 80 degree crystal clear skies, developers spent all weekend from 0900 on Saturday to 6pm on Sunday putting together not only presentations but working projects as well.

As you’ll be able to see, tables where not the only place coders took refuge to fight fatigue which started to kick in for many late Sunday afternoon. Dress code not apply, this weekend was a total hit. With a focus on Media and Tech, #HackHollywood as it’s was known all weekend on Twitter is trying to bridge the gap in which you can throw the Titanic in between with how different the groups are.

For something that leading up wasn’t getting much press, the turn out, the presentations, and the products that came out blew away all those that where there. No one knew that something trivial as typing, mixed with karaoke would blow away not only the judges, but the crowd. In winning top spot, Typing Karaoke stunning the crowd with it’s 8-bit graphics and consumer appeal. Coming in second, and just happen to be his co-workers and winner of 2 out of the 6 Sponsor prizes was Social Jukebox. Which turns the music being played at your local bar/pub into something everyone can participate in.

Coming in third was Vids4.me which aggregates all the videos your friends post on Facebook, Twitter into one place for easy viewing. Besides those that won prizes, honorable mentions in my mind goes to the team that created Fotage. Who has it so all your Instagram, Facebook photos and possible other services are all in one place.