If you're looking for the current Hack Productivity 2018 challenge, please click here!
Ever since humans discovered coffee, we’ve been coming up with new ideas and technologies to get stuff done, achieve our goals, and squeeze the most out of the precious 24 hours we get every day.
You might think productivity applies only to your job, school, or finances – but what about your passions, hobbies, and family? Don’t you want to excel there, too?
Earlier this year, Microsoft announced their new company mission: to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. It’s a big task, but Microsoft Office 365’s APIs and Add-in tools make hacking productivity possible in a whole new way.
The Microsoft Office 365 team is challenging developers and makers across the globe to use Microsoft Office 365 APIs and Add-ins to boost productivity in every area of your life.
Your commute, your workout, your dissertation, your band’s rehearsal bookings, your dinner plans, your backlog of digital photos, your multitude of social and media channels, & your living space – you can recode all these aspects of daily life and more!
Eligibility
This challenge is open to:
- Individuals (who have reached the age of majority in their jurisdiction of residence at the time of entry)
- Teams of eligible individuals
- Organizations (up to 50 employees)
- Large Organizations (with over 50 employees) may compete only for the non-cash Large Organization Recognition Awards.
- Employees of Large Organizations (with over 50 employees) are eligible as long as they enter the competition independent of their company and meet all other requirements.
Employees of the Microsoft, Devpost, and contractors currently under contract work for Microsoft or Devpost are not eligible.
If you are employed by a public sector organization, please review the rules pertaining to prize fulfillment to a public sector organization employee.
Requirements
Main Requirement: Submit an application that will help users increase their productivity. To be eligible for prizes, submissions must be EITHER a new Microsoft Office 365 Add-in (extension) OR integrate at least one of the following Microsoft Office 365 APIs (Mail, Calendar, Files, Photos/Video, or Contacts - or Microsoft Graph).
Please note that the "Best Pre-Coded App Idea" award does not share these requirements.
Submit the following assets:
- A demo video (hosted on YouTube, Vimeo, or Youku). Your video should include a demo of your working application via a step-by-step visual demo.
- Please submit at least one image/screenshot of your application.
- A way to access your working application for judging and testing. (Here’s how.)
Prizes
$31,000 in prizes
Grand Prize
- $10,000 cash
- Ticket(s) to a Microsoft conference (including travel and lodging reimbursement up to $1,500 each) for no more than two team members
- 30-minute meeting with a Microsoft product representative (may be in-person or virtual depending on location)
- 30-minute meeting with a leader from the Microsoft Incubation Group (may be in-person or virtual depending on location)
- Allowance on a premium Microsoft Office 365 service for one year (for up to five team members)
- Surface product (1)
Second Prize
- $5,000 cash
- 30-minute meeting with a Microsoft product representative (may be in-person or virtual depending on location)
- Allowance on a premium Microsoft Office 365 service for one year (for up to five team members)
- Surface product (1)
Third Prize
- $2,500 cash
- Allowance on a premium Microsoft Office 365 service for one year (for up to five team members)
- Surface product (1)
Category Award: Best Personal Productivity Application
- $1,500 cash
Category Award: Best Professional Productivity Application
- $1,500 cash
Best Student Application Award
- $1,500 cash
- Awarded to the best application created by a student or team of students (Full details in rules. Must be taking at least half-time credits or have graduated post-secondary school in the last six months)
Best Pre-Coded App Idea
- $1,500 cash
- Awarded at the discretion of the judges to the most creative and interesting “pre-coded” application idea for increasing productivity using either a Microsoft Office 365 Add-in or Microsoft Office 365 API
- To be eligible for this award a submission must not include a functioning application. All other elements of the submission are required, including: a demo video to explain your idea, a text description, and all other form fields.
Popular Choice Award
- $1,500 cash
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
How to enter
- “Register” to access the submission form, receive important communications, and form teams.
- Sign up for your free Microsoft Developer Account.
- Visit the Resources page for links to Microsoft Office 365 API and Add-in documentation, requirements, and app ideas.
- Find a teammate (optional). Do you have the UX chops, but need someone who can code? Are you a genius coder, but need some design flair? Join our Hack Productivity-only Slack channel.
- Shoot your demo video and take screenshots of your functioning app.
- Provide a way for us to access your app.
- Submit early! (You can edit your submission as many times as you want before the deadline.)
Judges
Eileen Murphy
CEO & Founder of ThinkCERCA
Peter Pezaris
CEO & Founder of Glip
Geir Hansen
Managing Director of Silicon Valley Bank
JD Marymee
Enterprise Architect at Microsoft
Guest Speaker
Judging Criteria
-
Quality of Idea
Includes creativity and originality of the idea or use case. -
Implementation of Idea
Includes how well the idea was executed by the developer and the extent to which the application utilizes the Microsoft Office 365 APIs or Add-ins in a way that increases productivity. -
Potential Impact
Includes the extent to which the application could impact the user’s productivity.
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