For the first time in the Kingdom March 10
The Family Affairs Council (FAC) will launch the first-of-its-kind “Tech for All Hackathon” from March 10-12 in Riyadh, in partnership with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, and the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI).
The event aims to encourage ideas and innovators to participate in adapting technology to serve the elderly, in line with the main pillars of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, which aims to promote and support the culture of collective innovation.
The hackathon journey includes four phases: the first phase is registration and idea submission (February 6 – February 26), followed by the second phase where the finalists are announced in-person (March 3), the third phase with the launch of the hackathon (March 10 – 12), and finally the fourth phase with the Demo Day and award ceremony for the winners (March 12).
The hackathon focuses on promoting digital inclusion for the elderly, including the creation of solutions within three tracks: the lifestyle improvement track to enable the elderly to practice their daily tasks more easily, the awareness and technical empowerment track to increase the confidence of the elderly and their ability to keep up with technology, and the free track that opens the way for youth creativity to create new products that are unprecedented to serve the elderly.
A number of workshops will be held during the hackathon to qualify participants in the various stages of idea development, including a brainstorming workshop on generating innovative ideas to address the challenges and needs of the elderly, a prototype development workshop to review how to produce a product that will be offered to elderly end users, in addition to other advanced workshops.
The Family Affairs Council, represented by the Committee for the Elderly, seeks to attract those interested in participating from young people, experts and specialists in the field of the elderly, programming, graphic design, and solution developers, and motivate them to innovate by providing financial prizes totaling one hundred and thirty thousand riyals for the winners of the first places, noting that registration is available from February 6 to 26, and those wishing to participate can register via the link: www.fachack.com.
On this occasion, Dr. Hala Al-Tuwaijri, Secretary General of the Family Affairs Council, stated that the launch of the “Tech Hackathon” for everyone for the first time is an extension of our wise government’s support to enhance the status of the elderly, preserve their rights, and enable them to live a dignified life.
