The First State will soon have its first open data hackathon: DataWorks 2016. On Saturday, June 4th, participants will be asked to solve challenges of the Delaware business community. The theme of this event is “Let’s Make It Easier to Do Business in Delaware.”

We’d like to thank the challenge providers who have stepped forward with important opportunities. And we’d like to honor our sponsors for making this event possible.

Thanks to Our Challenge Providers

What are the challenges? Find out by attending DataWorks 2016 this Saturday. In the meantime, we thank our challenge providers.

University of Delaware’s Horn Program in Entrepreneurship is devoted to entrepreneurial education. It emphasizes experiential learning and evidence-based entrepreneurship, while linking students with entrepreneurs, business leaders and members of the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem. We’re honored to have this inspiring institution as a challenge provider for DataWorks 2016.

Rolling Revolution is Delaware’s Mobile Vending and Food Truck Association. They seek to sustain the wellbeing of their industry, foster a sense of community, and work to improve vending and food truck regulations. As engaged community members (and ardent cooks who have fed many of us!) their collaboration is very appetizing.

Downtown Visions is a private, non-profit organization that manages the Business Improvement District of Wilmington. They are dedicated to saving historic buildings, recruiting small businesses to the city, marketing and promoting local businesses, and to creating a vibrant and safe downtown. As an engine for local growth and job creation, their contribution to DataWorks 2016 is essential. Welcome!

The Small Business Development Center at University of Delaware’s Office of Economic Innovation and Partnerships is devoted to economic development. They have crafted a unique model centered on long-term partnerships as well as access to space, capital, counsel and connections which empower entrepreneurs and innovators. As a driver of countless stories of growth and change, SBDC is a formidable challenge provider and welcome partner of DataWorks 2016.

The Delaware Senate is the upper house of the Delaware General Assembly where senators, including those of the Republican Caucus, craft legislation. The Caucus has told us that they believe open data will be “a big help for Delaware now and in the future.” And they’ve provided an excellent challenge for DataWorks 2016. We’re delighted to have state legislators on board.

Thanks to Our Sponsors

The preparations for DataWorks 2016 are many. And so are the costs. We’d like you to know about our event sponsors. And we offer our thanks.

First, a huge thank you to the Delaware Government Information Center (GIC), which is sponsoring our prizes – a Fitbit Blaze for every member of the winning team. The GIC is responsible for connecting Delaware citizens to their government. They have their work cut out for them – many of the state’s web pages are old. But they’re making steady, and impressive, improvements. (Prizes not available for government employees, but they’re still welcome to participate!)

Tech Impact runs two amazing programs that have helped Delawareans. First, they developed IT Works, a 16-week job training program in Information Technology (IT) for high school graduates between 18-26 years old. Then they helped create Zip Code Wilmington, a 12-week coding “bootcamp” that has successfully placed graduates in high-paying programming jobs.

Experis IT is a global job-placement firm with an office here in Wilmington. They currently have almost 100 tech jobs listed here in New Castle County!

We’d also like to thank the challenge providers who are also sponsors: The Horn Program in Entrepreneurship and Downtown Visions.

We’re honored to contribute to the open data movement in Delaware as well as to the greater good of The First State. With the support of our challenge providers and our sponsors, we believe that DataWorks 2016 will be a success. Let’s do well and do good on Saturday. Let’s make it easier to do business in Delaware. With open data.