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Imagine Cup Second Round Fun

Sunday, July 8, 2012 at 09:30PM

Today we did pretty much what we did yesterday, only this time we took 20 teams down to 6. We also had a new feature for the Imagine Cup 2012, we went down to the Showcase booths and had each team demonstrate their entry. This was great fun. Not having a desk between the judges and the teams made for some great interaction and interesting conversations, at least in the teams that I saw. And then there were six:

uCHAMPsys, Taiwan
quadSquad, Ukraine
Coccolo, Japan
MobileEye, New Zealand
i-GO, Portugal
Symbiosis, Greece

We announced these at 10:00 pm on Sunday night. Finalist presentations tomorrow. Can’t wait.

Rob |

Imagine Cup First Round Fun

Saturday, July 7, 2012 at 09:14PM

Today we had the First Round presentations in the Imagine Cup World Finals. 72 teams, loads of judges and a whole bunch of presentations to watch and score.Above are some of the teams just before we gave them their competition briefing and sent them off to sell their solutions. Once all the teams had presented we we had to get the scores back in, announce the teams moving forwards to Round 2, summarize their session feedback from the judges and then send it back. All before midnight. And we did. Congratulations to the following 20 teams:

tethoCloud Australia
Xight China
Level Up Egypt
Greenway Germany
Symbiosis Greece
DocTek Systems Ireland
Coccolo Japan
Dancing Pillow Jordan
Etzoockee Kazakhstan
Let IT Bee Korea
MobileEye New Zealand
Grawesome Oman
wi-GO Portugal
Technology Lanterns Qatar
IQube Romania
AlphaWaves Singapore
Osmosis Slovenia
uCHAMPsys Taiwan
cipher256 Uganda
Quadsquad Ukraine

These are the teams that are going forward to Round 2. They get to present tomorrow, all over again. The standard this year has been the highest I’ve ever seen, as were the scores, with teams separated by wafer thin amounts. It was hard to draw the line between them, but at the end of of the day we have to do that.

This was the picture just as the results were announced. If you were one of the 52 teams that didn’t make it, please, please, please stay happy. You have a lot to be happy about, more than you know. Just the fact that you have taken part in the competition and reached a point where someone will pay to send you half way round the world to see you strut your stuff is pretty amazing. Sydney is fantastic, the food and drink is free, and you are now on the radar of a lot of very interesting people.

One day one of whom might wake up with a need for someone who is smart, tech savvy and knows how to deliver presentations and products. And your Imagine Cup participation could suddenly change your life in a very big way.

Every Saturday night they have a huge firework display here. Which looked very nice indeed.

Rob |

Imagine Cup 2012 Opening Ceremony

Friday, July 6, 2012 at 09:25PM

Cutting the ribbon to start things off….

And then firing off a whole bunch of streamers....

Once the briefings were over it was time for the opening ceremony.

I suggested that someone might like to walk over there and press the sign, but nobody did.

The view outside.

Just time for a quick walk around the block, and then an early night.

Rob |

Imagine Cup Briefing Day

Friday, July 6, 2012 at 01:30PM

This was the view from our hotel room this morning. The Imagine cup World Finals are being held in the building on the left of the picture. And no, I didn’t add the rainbow on afterwards.

Today we are setting up the competition and briefing the judges.

This is the judging team for this year’s Software Development Challenge. A great crew of folks. We spent a big chunk of this afternoon making sure that everyone knows what to do, and that the way the judging works is right. I suppose you could call it a meeting, but it was a fun one, if such a thing is possible. Thanks for your help folks.