Pakathon DC organized a successful weekend hackathon in September last year where students from Pakistan and USA solved Pakistani community problems through a cross-Atlantic collaboration. After the success of the event, Pakathon DC has now formally announced a series of civic hacking and startup related events which will lead up to the weekend-long global hackathon in October 2015.
The kickoff event will be held on May 26th, 2015 featuring a keynote speech of Shahed Amanullah, one of city’s well-known serial entrepreneurs and founder of Affinis Labs – a DC-based incubator for startups and ideas that drive global social impact. Amanullah is also the founder of Zabiha.com, world’s largest halal food restaurant database as well as several other startups including LaunchPosse, Halalfire and altmuslim.com.
This year’s event will focus on the role startups and entrepreneurs play in bringing social change in Pakistan. Pakathon’s mission is to connect Pakistan-focused startups to global ideas, markets, talent and financing.
Danesh Gilani, Pakathon’s city lead in Washington, commented,
“One of the ways we’re doing things differently this year is by doing a series of events rather than just one hackathon weekend. I think organizing multiple events will help us create more conversation about social entrepreneurship in Pakistan, and get more people to come out and participate in the annual event.”
See also: Pakathon Reloaded: Global Extravaganza
Last year, Pakathon’s global hackathon hosted 150 teams in more than 15 cities globally. The winning team walked away with a $10,000 seed funding for their social impact startup. This year, Pakathon will expand the outreach and impact through a collaboration between Pakistani community from around the world and teams working in Pakistan.
