On March 29th 2017 the Hermes Hackathon (powered by Apigee) took place. I had been lucky enough to be invited to see some of the innovative projects that will be built throughout the day.
The brief is "...you can create a new pioneering app, web application, digital assistant, chatbot or anything else you can imagineer. This event offers developers, budding entrepreneurs and creative thinkers an opportunity to come together as a team and work with us in an environment of open innovation. Here you can explore the potential of our APIs and use our Developer Portal to assist you in rapidly prototyping your idea." With both API professionals and Students from the University taking part, we are sure to see a range of different ideas!
2:30PM
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The teams are putting the finishing touches on their projects. Sounds like we will have projects ranging from Intelligent Customer Service bots to "The Wordinator"!
5:00PM
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Presentations commence...
Carole Woodhead (CEO) and Chris Ashworth (CIO) from Hermes UK present the awards the teams.
Cheeky Intelligence Corporation
Luke, Reece, Osman, Denas and Zak created a Bob the Bot - a cheeky and sarcastic bot that would go absolutely viral. By leveraging Hermes APIs, Bob is able to answer customer queries- but only after a bit of banter..! The idea of adding different personalities to support chat bots really impressed the judges as a way of possibly generating viral digital content.
Infused Development
Jay, Matthew, Thomas, Bridie and Viesturs demonstrated a great balance between security and usability by replacing signatures with QR codes from an App that will provide GPS info on your delivery. This design has already been proven with the use of QR codes used for Airport Boarding Passes, and cleverly brings this concept into parcel delivery.
404 Brain Not Found
Ella, Joseph, Alfa and Ben used their delivery rescheduling app to demonstrate the benefits that real time GPS data can bring when improving customer experience that would also benefit Hermes. Not only did they design a full storyboard to show an Uber-like customer journey, they also leveraged the Hermes API platform to delivery this personalised experience.
The Wolf Hack
Not only did Elvjis, Leonidas, Simeon, Ben and Uwais impress me with the best team name, they also designed a live chat application that would improve customer service whilst also reducing the load on customer service representatives. By understanding the identity of a customer and calling multiple Hermes APIs, their bot can handle many customer service actions quickly and effectively.
Team 404
Edward, Jack, Sorang, Abigael and Usman orchestrated data between multiple APIs to create a simple experience for Merchants using platforms such as eBay and wanted to manage payments through Paypal. By providing Raspberry Pis with a small printer, merchants would have a connected experience in which they can print all labels after logging into a single app.
6:00 PM
Judges Deliberate!
Today's judging panel is made up of:
Carole Woodhead - Chief Executive Officer at Hermes UK
Chris Ashworth - Chief Information Officer at Hermes
Sean Davis - API Architect at Google Cloud UK
Zoe McClelland - Head of Business Strategy, Operations and Enterprise at Leeds Beckett University
The winner is... Team 404!
6:15 PM
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Student Union Bar!
Let everybody celebrate or commiserate with pints of Amstel on tap...
Once again, a hackathon has allowed the teams taking part to demonstrate the value they can create by leveraging the digital assets exposed by an Open API Platform. Many thanks to all the teams for taking part!
For those that are still in API mode, you can view the hackathon details via API here:
Group-thinking is among the most successful methods allowing to attain better results. Well, the Uber-like customer journey is an interesting stuff, the concept of which I once used in my essay on mobile technology. Certainly there is a huge difference between words and deeds.
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