The Future of Conversation, an Alexa Hackathon

The NYU Tandon Future Labs, the first New York City-sponsored incubator, started in 2009, has catalyzed growth for over a hundred startups, and has shaped the tech ecosystem throughout New York. The programs support early-stage ventures that are launching cutting edge technology products, creating jobs, and helping diversify the innovation economy. At any given time we support over 50 companies across four locations across Manhattan and Brooklyn.Since inception, more than100companies have graduated from the program,21through acquisition, for a combined portfolio of graduates valued at over $1B.  Companies include leading startups such as CB Insights, Clarifai, Bounce Exchange, and many others.In the process, the Future Labs companies have generated more than 3,201 jobs and $4 billion in economic impact on the City of New York.

NYU Future Labs

Join The Future Labs, a network of innovation spaces and programs supporting early stage startups in New York City, and Amazon from Saturday, September 24, 2016, to Sunday, September 25, 2016, for the Future of a Conversation, an Alexa Hackathon. The Alexa and Echo hackathon will challenge participants to create voice-based user interfaces for Alexa, the software supporting Amazon’s Echo hardware.
This is an opportunity to build a skill for Alexa that you would not only like to use, but believe could be a front-runner for this technology.  
Additionally, Twilio will be providing a prize for the best use of their API at the hackathon and will have developer evangelist, Sam Agnew, on-site to mentor teams throughout the hackathon.
All you need is to bring your laptop, charger, any hardware (i.e. devices you want to integrate with Alexa) and we will provide breakfast and lunch on Saturday, breakfast on Sunday, and all the caffeine you require! 
The hackathon will take place at the Digital Future Lab in DUMBO and participants are welcome to use the space between 7am-10pm.
 
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Prizes (see rules below)
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Digital Future Labs will award the winning team one month of free coworking space.
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Amazon will award Echos to each member of the winning team.
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BeMyApp will fly up to 3 members of the winning team to Las Vegas for 3 nights to attend and participate in the Money 20/20 hackathon - the premiere event for the world’s best developers on October 22-23rd where teams will battle for $125K in prize money!
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<LI>Twilio will award the winning team members with a wi-fi enabled Wemo Light Switch that works with Amazon's Alexa. </LI>
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<LI>Clerky will do the <A HREF="https://www.clerky.com/formation" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Incorporation and Post-Incorporation Setup</A> (excludes $133 in filing fees) for the winning team.</LI>
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Registration 
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Each individual participant must register on Eventbrite and <A HREF="http://futureofconversation.devpost.com/" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Devpost</A>.
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Teams will be assembled on Saturday morning and can have up to 4 members. 
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Please provide your name and you will be given an ID badge and your refunded deposit.
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Judges
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<A HREF="https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-binkley-6bb80216" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Alex Binkley</A> - Principal at <A HREF="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/high-line-venture-partners#/entity" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Third Kind Venture Capital </A>
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<A HREF="https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenkuyan" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Steven Kuyan</A> - Managing Director of <A HREF="http://futurelabs.nyc/" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Future Labs</A>
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<A HREF="https://www.linkedin.com/in/robm26" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Robert McCauley</A> - Amazon Alexa Solutions Architect
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Schedule
Day 1: Saturday, September 24, 2016
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9:00 AM – 10:00 AM: Team Registration &amp; Breakfast (Breakfast will be provided)
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10:00 AM - 10:10 AM: Future Labs Introduction
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10:15 AM - 10:30 AM: Amazon Alexa Intro &amp; Workshop
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10:30 - 10:40: Q.A
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10:41 AM – 10:50 AM: Sponsor Intro &amp; Demo
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10:50 - 11:00 AM: Q.A
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11:00 AM – 12:00 AM: Finalizing of Teams + Brainstorming Ideas
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12:00 PM – 12:55 PM: Lunch (Lunch will be provided)
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1:00 PM – 7:00 PM: Hacking
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7:30 PM: Dinner
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Day 2: Sunday, September 25, 2016
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8:00 AM – 9:00 AM: Breakfast (Breakfast will be provided)
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9:00 AM – 11:25 AM: Hacking
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11:30 AM - 12:15 PM: Lunch
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12:30 PM - 2:00 PM: Expo
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2:00 PM – 2:20 PM: Judging Deliberation
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2:20 PM - 2:30 PM: Winners announced and Prizes awarded
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Rules
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Demos must work. No pure design mockups.
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APIs and libraries are fine (as long as you didn’t write them). Winners may have code reviewed.
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All submissions must be submitted on DevPost 
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Be social, be active, be cool
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FAQs
What is Alexa?
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Alexa, the voice service that powers Amazon Echo, provides capabilities, or skills, that enable customers to interact with devices in a more intuitive way using voice. Examples of capabilities through the Alexa Voice Service include the ability to play music, answer general questions, set an alarm or timer, and more.
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The <A HREF="https://developer.amazon.com/alexa-skills-kit" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Alexa Skills Kit</A> is a collection of self-service APIs, tools, documentation and code samples that make it fast and easy for you to add skills to Alexa.
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At this Hackathon, an Alexa Solutions Architect will be onsite to help you code and easily build and add new capabilities (skills) to Alexa.
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Why should you learn to build Alexa skills?
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Once certified, your new skills will be published in the Alexa app which will in and of itself be a great addition to your portfolio.
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Second, you’ll gain experience with three services: Amazon’s Alexa Skills Kit, AWS Lambda (part of Amazon Web Services), and the NodeJS backend JavaScript framework.
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Sponsors
<A HREF="http://agency.bemyapp.com/" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">BeMyApp</A> is a global hackathon organizer and a developer relations agency. 
<A HREF="https://www.twilio.com/" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Twilio</A> is a cloud communications platform for software developers to build, scale and operate real time communications in their software applications. Twilio powers the future of business communications, enabling phones, VoIP, and messaging to be embedded into web, desktop, and mobile software. We take care of the messy telecom hardware and expose a globally available cloud API that developers can interact with intelligent &amp; complex communications systems. 
<A HREF="http://www.amazon.com" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Amazon</A> is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit <A HREF="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fabout&esheet=51420525&newsitemid=20160915005499&lan=en-US&anchor=www.amazon.com%2Fabout&index=3&md5=6da91beda33ee8956884d6f18372289b" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">www.amazon.com/about</A>.

Digital Future Lab

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