Mobile app developers to battle it out at Pivot East competition

The annual mobile app developer challenge is finally here but with a slight name change to accommodate other regions wishing to host their own competitions. Previously run under the ‘Pivot 25’ name, the annual battle of mobi-apps will now be Pivot East, catering for countries in East Africa.

“We got so much interest from other parts of Africa (when we had Pivot 25 last year) that we decided its time we give the same opportunity to other parts of Africa,” explains Annie Njenga of m:lab, the organizers of the competition.

Annie says plans are underway to have similar developer competitions in West, South and North Africa after the wide publicity and success of Pivot 25 last year.

The competition, now in its second year, will however maintain the number of finalists to 25 contestants and will be held at the Ole Serani Hotel on 5th and 6th June. Although a majority of the finalists are Kenyan developers, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania is also well represented.

The competition has five categories; Financial services, Business and Resource Management, Entertainment, Mobile society and Utilities.

The overall winner will get an all-expense paid, five day trip to showcase at GITEX Technology Week in Dubai. Gitex is the largest Tech event in the Middle East and East Asia region. The top winner in each category will take home category prizes.

M-farm, an agribusiness mobile app and one of the finalists at last year’s Pivot 25, will be launching the Android version at the sidelines of this years event. M-Fam together with last year’s winner – MedAfrica – will also be guest speakers at Pivot East.

Pivot is an m:lab initiative to bolster the development of mobile apps relevant to the region through the annual competition. This year’s theme is ‘Innovation and Enterprise’ and will include fireside chats by regional tech and business leaders covering topics such as entrepreneurship opportunities outside East Africa, financing tech ideas, social enterprise and the role of innovation in the economy.

 

To attend the event visit www.pivoteast.com/about/delegates.html

As one of the co-sponsors, CapitalFM will be streaming the two day event on www.capitalfm.co.ke/tv

 


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