Announcing the Twilio Hackathon on DEV
Tags: announcement, twiliohackathon, twilio, opensource
Published: 2020-04-02 16:02:34

We are very excited to announce the first Twilio x DEV community hackathon!

Running through April 30, this contest will be an opportunity to earn community bragging rights, build impactful projects with Twilio, and win sweet prizes.  Twilio has some of the most powerful APIs around town, and we are really looking forward to seeing what everyone in the community creates.

Read on for more of the details!

## The Twilio APIs

You are allowed to use _any_ of the Twilio APIs in your project.  You’re likely already familiar with Twilio’s SMS products, but you might not know that they have [a bunch of other awesome products](https://www.twilio.com/products) you can leverage for your submission.

So, while you’re very welcome to submit an SMS project, we’re also excited to review and reward entries that leverage programmable [voice](https://www.twilio.com/voice), [video](https://www.twilio.com/video), [chat](https://www.twilio.com/chat), cross-channel [conversations](https://www.twilio.com/conversations), and the rest of the [Twilio products](https://www.twilio.com/products)!

## Categories
- **COVID-19 Communications**: an app to help folks communicate during this challenging time, either to stay connected or to help resolve COVID-19 related challenges.
 - *Examples: Social interaction apps especially for elderly, remote education tools, distribution of supplies to those in need, telemedicine*

- **Engaging Engagements**: an app that a company could implement to better engage with their customers or to manage their business.
 - _Examples: text marketing, fleet management, account notifications, and more -- get more ideas from [the Twilio website](https://www.twilio.com/solutions)_

- **Interesting Integrations**: an app that integrates Twilio with at least one other API. 
 - _Examples: appointment reminders app that uses a scheduling API, sports alert app that uses sports-stat APIs, location-based app that leverages geo-location APIs_

- **Exciting X-Factors**: an innovative or unexpected app that doesn’t necessarily fit any of the above categories, but is a clear winner nonetheless.

## Prizes 🎁
- **4 Grand Prize Winners** (one in each category):	
 - $1,500 USD gift card or equivalent 💸
 - Twilio Swag Pack ($300 value) 😎
 - [SIGNAL Conference](https://www.twilio.com/signal) Ticket ($2500 USD value) 🔥
 - Your project showcased on [Twilio CodeExchange](https://www.twilio.com/code-exchange), with a winner badge ✨
 - $300 USD credit to the [DEV Shop](https://shop.dev.to/) 🎁
 - DEV “Twilio Hackathon” winner badge 🏆

- **Runner-up Prizes** (10 total):
 - $150 USD credit to the [DEV Shop](https://shop.dev.to/) 🎁
 - Your project showcased on [Twilio CodeExchange](https://www.twilio.com/code-exchange)
 - DEV “Twilio Hackathon” runner-up badge 👏

- **Participants** (with valid projects):
 - $50 USD credit to the [DEV Shop](https://shop.dev.to/) 🎁
 - DEV “Twilio Hackathon” participation badge 💪

Regardless of whether or not you win, your project may be showcased on [Twilio CodeExchange](https://www.twilio.com/code-exchange)!

## How To Participate 👋

In order to submit a valid project, please follow the submission process and rules closely.

**How to submit** 📨

- Join the [Twilio CodeExchange community](https://ahoy.twilio.com/code-exchange-community) by filling out their program agreement.
- Document your project journey along the way with the [#twiliohackathon](http://dev.to/t/twiliohackathon) tag.
- Submit your project as a DEV post using this [suggested template](https://dev.to/new/twiliohackathon) with the #twiliohackathon tag. Please be sure to include the code repository in the post. Embedded live demos, screenshots, and code snippets are also encouraged!

**Additional Rules** 📝
- You must include at least one [Twilio API](https://www.twilio.com/docs/api) in your project. [Use the promo code](https://twil.io/apply-promo) DEVHACK20 for $20 when you create your account.
- Your code must be hosted publicly . We prefer GitHub but if you’re using another host (i.e. GitLab, BitBucket), please be sure to include the GitHub username you used to join the Twilio CodeExchange community somewhere in your submission.
- Your repository must have a README with clear setup instructions - [here](http://github.com/twilio-labs/sample-template-nodejs) is a sample template. 
- Your project must be started and completed between April 2 - April 30.
- Your code must be licensed with a permissive license (i.e. MIT, Apache-2)
- Your project should not have security vulnerabilities or violate security best practices (i.e. hard coded credentials, plain text passwords)
- Your code cannot violate Twilio’s [Terms of Service](https://www.twilio.com/legal/tos) or [Acceptable Use Policy](https://www.twilio.com/legal/aup)
- By making a submission, you agree to the [competition's terms](http://twil.io/terms-dev-hackathon).

## Community Support 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♂️

The [Twilio team](http://dev.to/twilio) will be available to help anyone who runs into issues or has questions related to the API. You can reach the Twilio team by leaving a comment in the [Twilio Hackathon help thread](https://dev.to/thepracticaldev/twilio-hackathon-help-thread-1jno).  We’ll also be setting up a dedicated DEV Connect group channel for more synchronous help.  **To join this group, just leave a comment in the help thread**.  This will be a great opportunity to spend time with Twilio’s amazing team, and your fellow community participants.

Twilio will host office hours in that DEV Connect group channel every weekday during the following times:

- Mondays: 3-6pm EDT
- Tuesdays: 3-6pm UTC
- Wednesdays: 3-6pm AEDT 
- Thursdays: 3-6pm PDT
- Fridays: 3-6pm EDT

Additionally, Twilio will be hosting a weekly office hours session on their [Twitch Channel](https://twitch.tv/twilio), starting on April 2 at 4-6pm PDT.

Finally, we have a [community update thread](https://dev.to/thepracticaldev/your-twilio-hackathon-updates-172k) where you can share your ideas and gather feedback as you begin making progress on your submission.  We encourage you to share your progress along the way to generate more excitement and benefit from additional community feedback suggestions!

## Important Dates 🗓

**April 2**: Hackathon Begins!
**April 30**: Submission Due at 11:59pm PST.
~~**May 4**: Winners Announced!~~
**May 5**: Winners Announced!

We hope you have fun, learn some new things, and build something you’re proud of.  We can’t wait to see what you build!

Happy Coding!