The tech scene in Chicago is booming, and there's no better example of that than Techweek. The weeklong event at Merchandise Mart brings together programmers, entrepreneurs and other innovators to gush about where the tech industry is heading.
The week will kickoff on Saturday with an intense 24-hour "hackathon" in which teams will create a new application from scratch. The event will start at noon on Saturday and all projects must be completed and submitted by noon on Sunday. Three meals will be provided to competitors.
Teams will demo their projects on Friday at Techweek, and winners will be selected by a panel of judges. The first place team will be awarded $5,000, second place gives each member a round-trip plane ticket anywhere in the continental U.S. and the third place team gets five VIP passes to any future Techweek.
There are also two sponsored prizes. The team that best uses Zebra Technologies' platform will win a sick drone, and the team with the best use of Corvisa's Summit Platform will win $1,000.
Get your Booleans, strings and algorithms in order, because there's a lot of sweet prizes on the line over the weekend.
Disclaimer: Time Out Chicago is the media sponsor for Techweek Chicago's Hackathon.
You can get a 25 percent discount on your Techweek Chicago tickets with the promotional code "TIMEOUTTWCHI"