Netsol Technologies conducted its 2nd Throw-A-Thon, a hackathon in Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), from 3rd June to 5th June, 2016.
The event was a huge success with around 200 participants from all over Pakistan who showcased their innovative ideas revolving around entrepreneurship and virtual reality.
The hackathon kicked off on 3rd June, with a grand opening ceremony attended by the participants and key media and bloggers. Uber was the official transportation partner and provided 3 free rides per participant throughout the hackathon weekend. Coca Cola and eeGeo, which is a 3D mapping and virtual reality platform and just signed a deal with Netsol, also sponsored the event.
There were some very exciting workshops for the participants by some great mentors such as: Zubin Davar, Product and Partnerships Marketing Manager at Google, Bart Denny, Senior Vice President of Product at eeGeo and Ahmad Shah Nawaz, Country Lead of Mobility Apps at Google.
In addition, the participants experienced virtual reality by using the first HTC Vive in Pakistan. This created a lot of buzz amongst them as virtual reality is the most talked about technology as off now.
Faizaan Ghauri, Founder of Throw, Vice President of Strategy at Netsol and Chief Marketing Officer at eeGeo, said, “We are overwhelmed by the response we got at this hackathon and the startup and VR ideas presented by the participants. It shows that Pakistan has a huge appetite for such events and we look forward to conduct more of these in the future.”
The closing ceremony was conducted on the 5th of June and was attended by some very special guests such as, Salim Ghauri, Ceo of Netsol, Fawwad Ghauri, Head of Digital Tranformation & Co-Founder of Itchy Fingerz, Ahmad Shah Nawaz and Zohair Yousafi, Head of Expansion Pakistan at Uber.
10 teams from the general startups category were shortlisted to present at the closing ceremony. The 1st Place was secured by, ‘Team Ghar Par’, 2nd Place by ‘Team Car Chabi’ and the 3rd Place by ‘Team Book my Umrah’. In addition, the ‘Best Presentation’ award was given to: Auzaaj, Affordable and Ghar Par. The Best Instagrammer Award was won by: Zeeshan Irfan and the Best Tweeter by: Usama Rehman.
In the VR track, the 1st Place for the ‘Best Overall Experience’ was won by ‘Team Pebu’ and the 2nd Place by ‘Team Virtual Property Guide’. The 1st Place for the ‘Most Creative Idea’ was bagged by ‘Team Raft Tech’ and the 2nd Place by ‘Team Virtual Souls’.
