The latest “47 Hours” hackathon for youth IT start-up projects took place recently in Rostov-on-Don. Center-invest Bank continues to be a partner for this event. Representatives of the bank held masterclasses for the young programmers.
The hackathon participants had to turn their IT idea into a working prototype and demonstrate it to a panel of judges headed by the Rostov Region Minister for Information Technologies and Communications. As well as working on their projects, during the 47 hours the young programmers attended special masterclasses held by leading experts in information and communications technology.
“Supporting new entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship in general is one of Center-invest Bank’s priorities,” said Yuri Bogdanov, Chairman of Center-invest Bank’s Executive Board. “Before the 47 hours project team got started, the hackathon format barely existed and was practically unknown in southern Russia. People now know considerably more about IT start-ups in the Rostov region than before. We now have 150 talented IT specialists taking part in the project. They are creating working prototypes of software products or services that can be viewed in a presentation, „touched„ on a smartphone screen, and tested on potential consumers.“
The head of the 47 Hours project, Alexander Konovalov, said: “Center-invest Bank, the leading regional bank, has supported us right from the outset, and together we have managed to stage the largest IT event in southern Russia. In this case the word „regional„ has an additional meaning: playing an active role in the life of the region. Together with Center-invest Bank we managed to attract the attention of both the regional government and also leading venture funds and IT companies outside the region. We quickly created an environment infused with the ideas of technology entrepreneurship and professional development. We have shown hundreds of specialists and students how to find a promising idea and launch a technology product in a short space of time, adapting quickly to the market realities.“