The response to Sabre’s first ever Asia Pacific inaugural hackathon has been so overwhelming that the company has added a virtual component to enable overseas developers to take part remotely.
To date, over 200 participants have registered from Singapore and the Asia Pacific region for Destination Hack Singapore.
Roshan Mendis: Overwhelming response to hackathon. (Image credit: Sabre)
“We’ve decided to add the virtual entry component to meet demand from additional overseas developers seeking to participate but unable to join in person,” said Roshan Mendis, senior vice president of Sabre Travel Network Asia Pacific.
The hackathon, with the theme ‘Reinvent Travel’, takes place from October 14 to 16 at The Hub, Singapore’s largest co-working community of techies, entrepreneurs and creatives
The event is held in partnership with WIT and in conjunction with WIT 2016 at Marina Bay Sands from October 17 to 19, where the winner will have the chance to present his/her application.
Sabre has added new challenges to run alongside the overall ‘Best New Technology Application’ category, which has a Grand Prize of US$10,000. These include ‘Best Use of Virtual Reality’, a ‘Chatbot Challenge’ and special travel merchandising widget categories linked to the New Sabre Red Workspace, Sabre’s advanced platform for selling and booking travel that will launch in 2017.
“These extra categories are designed to accelerate the adoption of some of today’s key breakthrough technologies by the travel industry. From enhancing the traveller experience to providing travel consultants with more tools to sell and manage travel bookings, create efficiencies and drive up revenues, there is real scope for the boundaries to be pushed,” added Anupam Bokil, vice president of technology for Sabre Travel Network Asia Pacific.
Destination Hack Singapore is at The Hub & held in partnership with WIT.
Entries will be judged by a panel of industry experts including Roshan Mendis, senior vice president of Sabre Travel Network Asia Pacific; Toni Portmann, CEO of DHISCO; David Moore, senior vice president of software development at Sabre; Jason Shi, director of R&D at Ctrip; and Greg Schulze, senior vice president, commercial strategy and services of Expedia.
• Featured image credit: HUNG KUO CHUN/iStock