USECON goes Hackathon – Tourism Technology Festival 2023

Already 4 years ago the Gastrohackathon took place for the first time at the “Alles für den Gast” trade fair in Salzburg. This successful format will be extended to the Tourism Technology Festival this year. USECON and other partners have teamed up with the Austrian National Tourist Office “Österreich Werbung” to turn the Hackathon into a wide-ranging Tourism Technology Festival for the industry.

What is a Hackathon?

The goal and the structure of the format are simple – the solutions are groundbreaking. Companies pose challenges on topics that are currently a trending topic for them. The participants team up and apply for one of the challenges. Within 24 hours they find and program innovative solutions in a presentable way that they can be evaluated by the viewers and the expert jury. With this in mind, the solutions are well thought through, tested for feasibility, and can even serve as a technological basis for potential products. The participants win prizes, meet new people, compete in a relaxed atmosphere, and find solutions that often cannot be found in the normal business operations of the challenge partners – win-win for both sides.

USECON fits in perfectly – we are always interested in finding suitable solutions for our customers and their users and we want to be innovative and technologically forward-looking. This was also the reason for us to participate in the TTF 2023. In the last few years, we have been able to gain a lot of experience in the implementation of technology through our participation in various technologically highly innovative research projects. Our everyday consulting work is increasingly accompanied by this – so it was only natural to implement that approach and knowledge in an innovative format. Through this approach, we want to foster fresh ideas as well as talents and complement our consulting approaches.

The Challenges

There are 4 main challenges, and the specific topics will be managed by stream mentors.

1. customer-centric application – this is about developing tourism applications for guests and locals to improve their experience in Austria.
2. data visualization – handling data sets is a highly topical issue – data sets from the Austrian tourism industry will be visualized in creative ways to provide a clearer view of tourism in Austria.
3. virtual reality – A very exciting topic for USECON due to many previous projects. The challenge is about creating a virtual experience that illustrates tourism in Austria in a forward-looking way.
4. AI Photo – Generating photo-realistic images via AI sounds easy – but it’s also about being able to compete with traditional photos in the tourism sector.

How can I participate in challanges as aprivate person?

You are a developer, designer, UX enthusiast, or idea provider? Participation is very easy: Apply as an individual or even as a team until October 10th and then wait for our confirmation. On site it starts with team building, information about the challenges, then the 24-hour solution finding, presentation in front of the jury and other participants, as well as a big award ceremony at the “Alles für den Gast” fair. Food, drinks & goodies are of course also available – and a lot of new, interesting people & a good vibe. Click for participation.

How can I participate as a company?

Over 100-150 young professionals interested in challenging themselves on a topic and finding meaningful solutions in the shortest possible time united in one place. We think it makes sense to be there. If you want to be at the cutting edge as well and be part of the forward-thinking solutions and participants, inform yourself of sponsorship opportunities by contacting harthum@usecon.com.