Around 25,000 more people are expected to call Lake Macquarie home over the next 20 years, taking the City’s population to around a quarter of a million people. The City is part of the Hunter region of New South Wales, Australia, which has the largest share of both regional population and regional employment and is located in the State’s fastest growing corridor – from the northern edge of Sydney to Newcastle. The projected population along this corridor is estimated to be 1.1 million by 2036. The State Government has prepared a regional plan for the Hunter and a Future Transport Technology Roadmap for New South Wales. Meanwhile, Lake Macquarie City Council is currently preparing its City Plan to 2050. Your ideas from Lake Mac Hack can help tackle the region’s current and future transport challenges.

LakeMacHack is designed to activate digital innovation and business venture skills across the Lake Macquarie community.  Talented local teams will double down on key local transport challenges that need some applied thinking, innovation skills and fresh approaches. Event challenge topics of Transport + Connectivity in Land, Sea+ Air will focus the efforts of local Hackers, Hustlers and Hipsters in our upcoming 54hr Hackathon challenge on 16-18June2017.

We're tackling 3 big questions for the Lake Macquarie economic region:

1. Bus and beyond: how can we innovate, optimise or combine our use of existing transport options?

2. Pedalling for impact: how do we make cycling experiences a more user friendly, integrated option in Lake Macquarie?

3. Lake Mac to Sydney: T-90 and counting. How can we optimise the use of rail and other transport modes to unlock the potential of our proximity?

It will be an immersive event for all involved, with a 54hr timeframe providing a compressed challenge to deliver first generation concepts and prototypes in a deep-dive learning experience that balances teamwork, time management, business-savvy and digital collaboration skills to create new possibilities for our region.

$10,000 in prizes

You'll need to grab a ticket from our Eventbrite site at https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/lakemachack-tickets-33645472514

• Market assessment
  Is there an evident problem - how well is it described and evidenced?
• Market validation
  Have you gathered evidence of customer validation of your idea?
• Customer Needs targeted
  How well are the customer segments described and understood for the problem you're solving?
• Concept clarity
  Proof of concept is clear, understandable
• Collaboration
  Evidence of collaboration activity within the team + public input on the idea.
• API leverage
  APIs and DevHardware offered for use by the teams has been leveraged to good effect.