Extentia Hosts X24 a 24-Hour Technology Build Marathon

PUNE, India - Nov. 3, 2015 - PRLog -- Extentia Hosts <X24> – a 24-Hour Technology Build Marathon
internal teams compete to build apps that help solve real-world problems using innovative technology

Pune, India, November 3, 2015 – Extentia Information Technology held X24, a unique ‘Build Marathon’ over 24 hours between October 30-31 in an event that featured six internal teams. This was a hackathon that required participants to develop technology based solutions, and to go from concept to pitchin a tight timeframe.

The event was all about using cutting edge technology to solve everyday problems. The teams were presented a set of challenges to choose from, and were asked to build solutions for them. They were also encouraged to build applications using Extentia’s ‘Techquarium (http://www.extentia.com/techquarium/)’ set of new-age technology devices with a focus on innovation and usability.

Founded in 1998, Extentia is an Indo-German software services provider that focuses on Technology, Consulting, and Innovation for Mobile, Cloud, and Design. Its mission is to deliver confidence in a sustainable and socially responsible manner for customers, partners, and stakeholders.

Extentia offersboutique and high end technology services– development and support – for customers across the globe. These include numerous enterprise deployments.It is headquartered in Pune, India with offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Singapore, and Germany.

X24 teams were made up of developers, designers, and sales people, with upto 12 members in each team. They were to develop a solution for a challenge, and present it to an evaluation and mentoring panel, along with a sales pitch.

The event’s basic premise was creative problem solving – in effect ‘Do Smart. Be Smart, where ‘SMART’ stands for:
S = Sketch M = Model A = Architect R = Resolve T = Transact.

Diverse Challenges for Teams

Be Positive – related to ‘smartly’ matching donors for blood donation

iDo – use technology for social work to connect those who need with those who can provide

Step Ahead – businesses ‘sponsor’ individuals based on their physical activity to support local causes

Lost and Found – help return items to people that have lost them using tags that can be scanned

Cultivate to Grow – enable farmers to plan and manage crop production

The Gurus

The X24 or ‘gurus’ were mentors and judges drawn from industry, and included technology entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, startup advisors, and incubators.Among them were Arun Kadekodi (Soft Corner), Suhasini Kirloskar (GS Lab), Sudarshan Narayan (angel investor/SaaS startup advisor from Amplifi), Maninder Gill (Ideacts), Chirag Sabunani (Only Great Foods), Raman Adlakha (Avaya), Titiksha Mukherjee (Tieto), and Vishal Parpia (CloudCover and ActivElement)

The gurus interacted constantly with the teams as they worked. On the afternoon of October 31, they met to evaluate, vote, and pick the winners based on several assigned evaluation criteria – concept, execution, and pitch.

Live Feed and Social Media

X24 had comprehensive support staff made up of Extentia’s system administration team and a special crew that managed a live feed through the entire event. The live feed was made up of photos, videos, hourly updates, and an active comments section. X24 was also live tweeted (https://twitter.com/extentia) over 24 hours, along with updates on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Extentia). Twitter posts were favorited and retweeted extensively using the hashtag ‘#ExtentiaX24’.

Sponsors

The event attracted several sponsors who offered generous prizes and support for the teams. They included Uber, Café High Spirits, Amplifi, Malaka Spice, Kwizine, The Flour Works, Effingut Brewerkz, and Dezio.

‘Apart from making sure the participants and supports had fun, we wanted to see the effect of compressing the solution delivery cycle to something that was almost unrealistically ambitious. By packing the teams with all the required skills and expertise, we got to see the benefits of close collaboration, communication, thinking, and hard work,’ said Umeed Kothavala, CEO, Extentia. ‘That, coupled with incredible support from our Gurus and mentors ensured that every team, support staff member and enthusiastic onlooker had a terrific experience that we’re waiting to have unfold again!’

More Information

To know more about X24 – the challenges, live feed, judge profiles, and sponsors, look up http://x24.extentia.com.

For questions, write to inquiries (at) extentia.com or call +91 20 6728 5200 (India)/+1-408-627-4094 (United States).