Jamaican Creatives and Techies Join Forces To ‘Hack The City’

Have you ever had a creative idea that addresses a social issue in your city? Well, this is your opportunity to join forces with other like-minded individuals to make your idea a reality. Creatives and Techies are invited to participate in a Hackathon event dubbed ‘Hack The City”.

Kingston Creative in partnership with IDB Lab will give 100 artists, creatives, and tech enthusiasts the opportunity to work together to brainstorm solutions for societal problems in Jamaica that contribute to the achievement of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and Vision 2030.

“The SDG’s cover topics like Peace, Justice, Health, Education, Gender Equality, Climate Action, Sustainable Cities, and Economic Growth” commented Andrea Dempster Chung, Executive Director of Kingston Creative. “These are all issues that impact the quality of life of all Jamaicans and we are happy to be able to bring the best creative and tech minds together to pitch innovative solutions to the challenges that we face as a country – and win JMD$250,000 in funding for these ideas.”

From January 27 -29, at the Kingston Creative Hub on Harbour Street in Downtown Kingston

will be filled with teams of creatives and techies, who will develop innovative ideas and pitch

them to a panel of judges for a chance to win $ prizes.

On Friday, January 27, participants will be invited to a mixer where they will network and form teams of 3-6 members. Saturday kicks off with training and support from mentors to help teams identify, iterate and improve on their solutions. Only 10 teams will be selected to advance to Day 3 where they will pitch their solutions and winners will be selected.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) with its innovation laboratory, IDB Lab is funding the Creative Hack and other CreaTech initiatives through a three-year $1.2 Million USD technical cooperation agreement with Kingston Creative, designed to support and give market access to Jamaican creative entrepreneurs. The Creative Hack, by bringing together creatives and technology experts, encourages collaboration and encourages more creatives to use technology to drive their business ideas forward.

If you are interested in participating in this event, here are the Creative Hack guidelines:

● Applicants must be 18 years & older and a resident of Jamaica

● At least 50% of the team must be creative practitioners

● Teams must be a minimum of 3 persons and a maximum of 6 persons

● At least one person must be a Technology Enthusiast

● All solutions must include an element of technology and support an SDG

All participants will have access to free Workshops on Ideation, Plan & Cost Formulation,

Pitch Rehearsal, Networking opportunities with like-minded persons, and an opportunity to

impact their community.

Sign up here: bit.ly/3Ke2BC3 by January 22, 2023, or visit the

Kingston Creative website www.kingstoncreative.org for details.

SiliconCaribe is a proud supporter of everything Kingston Creative