Go Code Colorado 2018 challenge weekend happens again with some fantastic ideas highlighting the really creative people and concepts. This annual event brings folks from diverse backgrounds together to compete in a very friendly, innovative and intellectually stimulating way.
What is Go Code?
According to the website (Sorry the website no longer works), "Go Code Colorado is a competition that challenges multidisciplinary teams to turn public data into useful business insights and tools." It is that at the core, but it is much more, too. The Colorado Secretary of State office puts on the event. The intent is driving awareness, commerce and growth using the mountains of public data the government stores.
For 2018, the challenge statement is "Build a product that uses public data to deliver insights for a business decision-maker." That is pretty broad, so we see a wide variety of great ideas.
Go Code Colorado Challenge Weekend
The big event is Challenge Weekend -- where small teams bring innovation to life.
In a weekend, you intellectually sprint with innovation and create the basis of a business venture. You do it with a few team members, in a room with dozens of other folks doing the same thing. And, the energy is amazing.
This year we again decided to dive in and participate with a small team of awesome talent. We spent the weekend at Epicentral in Colorado Springs digging into public data, competitive analysis and creating the basis of what could be a disruptive application. Along the way we spent a lot of time with business decision makers discussing the concepts and validating ideas. From what we learned, there is a huge need for our concept and several folks said they want it, if the product is ever built.
Armed with great research and lots of industry validation, we set out to demonstrate and present the ideas.
Excellent Competition
Go Code Colorado is a competition first, and an idea factory second. To win, you get creative, follow the rules and meet the exact criteria. If judging were on usefulness, or how it might make an impact, results would be different.
For instance, a small group of High School students formed a team and presented a great idea. It's utility and practicality from the high schoolers perspective would adopt easily and spread. They may not have completely fleshed out the ideas, but they didn't really have the life skills required to do all of it. It is, nevertheless, a good idea -- and one that someone could probably make a great app from. For the competition, they needed more focus on synthesizing public data, yet they are stellar. I am totally impressed (not only with the idea, but with the kids who did it). BIG Props to them.
So it was with several of the ideas, including ours.
Yet, when it's over, there is no disappointment. We did great work, validated the concepts in the real business world, and learned a ton in the process. It was great to meet and work with a group of extremely talented individuals. Thank You for all you taught me!
If you want a new business venture and have resources to tackle something big, then we have one for you. It's already vetted and there are customers waiting.
Another great and intellectually challenging weekend at Go Code Colorado 2018. Good luck to the finalists from Colorado Springs!
UPDATE:
I have not seen the GO Code Colorado again since the Pandemic. I wonder if it just lost interest, or if other priorities took over. I think the challenges and the really wonderful ideas that came from it were worth the effort. Perhaps the State of Colorado did not profit from it, but I think there is a lot more good that came from it than just the ideas that won the competition. I, for one, would love to see Go Code Colorado come back.