Partner Article

Wigan youngsters invited to Manchester's biggest youth hack event

Greater Manchester’s biggest youth coding event, GM Hackfest, is coming to Wigan and Leigh this summer, giving young people from the area the opportunity to get involved and learn vital coding skills.

The two-day event is being hosted by Leigh Hack space and Hive Manchester, two community organisations providing space for people to meet and work. Taking place on Thursday 11 and Friday 12 August, youngsters aged between 13 and 19 are invited to take part in a variety of fun coding challenges, aimed at testing their coding skills and creativity.

Sponsored by Apadmi and Reality Mine, the free event will give the next generation of coders the chance to compete to build the best hack software. Teams of up to four will have two days to work together and come up with a solution to a challenge to win a series of prizes, including a Raspberry Pi 3, Amazon vouchers and cinema tickets.

Expert mentors from local coding companies across Manchester will also be on hand to share their knowledge and help participants of all abilities complete their challenge.

The Wigan and Leigh Youth Hack is one of five GM Hackfest events taking place across Greater Manchester. The other events will be taking place in Oldham, Manchester, Salford and Tameside.

Particpants will then be able to join the ‘Big Hack Meet-up’, which will be held at the Sharp Project on Saturday 13 August 2016, to get together, share their experiences and learn more about coding.

Marcus Baw, director and founder of Leigh Hackspace, said: “This event is shaping up to be a huge success, and we have some of Manchester’s leading experts on board, ready to share their knowledge and insights with the coders of tomorrow. It’s going to be a really interesting day, packed with lots of fun and engaging tasks.

“We’re extremely excited to see how the young coding generation will respond to the challenges and ultimately discover what creative ideas they will produce.”

Nick Black, CEO of Apadmi, said: “GM Hackfest is a fantastic event to get involved with as it helps to engage with young people and get them excited about technology, as well as develop their coding skills in a fun and tech-filled environment.

“Currently digital businesses in the North West are struggling to recruit the right talent to fill the even increasing number of tech roles available. A recent study found that coding roles have been the hardest to fill for three years in a row. However, by hosting events like this, we can inspire people from a younger age to get involved in the tech industry and nurture the next generation of talent to bridge the skills gap.”

Tickets to the event are free and can be obtained from the Eventbrite website - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wigan-leigh-youth-hack-tickets-26388808637

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ursula Hutchinson .