The Disrupt Europe Hackathon kicks off this weekend at Old Billingsgate in London! Coders and designers will have precious few hours to hack a project together before presenting to our illustrious group of judges. And just who are these judges you may ask?
From developer geek to investor chic, these judges are ready for anything, and don’t think they’ll be holding back. They will assess hackathon participants on a scale of technical difficulty, usability, usefulness and creativity. In sum, aim for a “wow” factor and you’ll be in good shape.
The winning team gets a $5,000 prize from TechCrunch, but there are a multitude of sponsor prizes also up for grabs. As previously announced, only teams earning a score of 3 or above will receive two tickets to the conference.
Without further ado, this year’s Disrupt Europe Hackathon judges:
Camille Baldock
Camille Baldock (@camille_) is a software engineer. She has spent the past years writing code and making APIs, web and mobile applications for a development agency, a startup and now works at the Government Digital Service. In her spare time, she coaches junior developers and is a 3D printing enthusiast.
Eric Brotto
Eric Brotto (@ericbrotto) is currently the Partner & Program Specialist for Startupbootcamp. Eric cut his teeth in the tech world as a iPhone App Creative Developer at the digital production studio Smile Machine where he built apps for brands such as Ford, Nike and Ubisoft. Today, Eric is the Co-Founder and Principal of Creative Bytes, a monthly networking and panel discussion which revolves around creative technology and digital marketing. He is also a Global Facilitator for Startup Weekend and Decoded.
Claudia De Antoni
Claudia De Antoni (@ClaudiaDeAnt) is an investor at Virgin Management, the family office of Sir Richard Branson, where she focuses on technology, media, telecom, education and health & wellness sectors. Among other projects, she is currently supporting the development of the first Virgin-branded mobile application – expected to launch in 2015. Prior to Virgin, Claudia founded Popup Supper, an online marketplace for catering and entertainment services.
Tak Lo
Tak Lo (@tak_lo) is a Director at Techstars. Previously, he spent over 5 years in the London and NYC startup communities, having founded and mentored several startups on both sides of the Atlantic. He was formerly a management consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton, an investment banker at Nomura, and an US Army veteran. Tak dabbled at London Business School and the University of Chicago. He writes regularly at taklo.co
Melinda Seckington
Melinda Seckington (@mseckington) is a developer at FutureLearn, a social learning platform offering free courses from a wide range of university partners and cultural institutions. She loves attending and hacking at Hackdays, BarCamps and other tech meet-ups, and since 2009 has been organising them at Geeks of London, including HACKED at the O2 last year. She also runs MissGeeky.com, a blog about all things geeky and girly.