Zoho Launches First Low-Code Hackathon in Saudi

Zoho Corp. has announced today that it has opened up registration for its first low-code hackathon in Saudi Arabia: Create for Impact. The hackathon aims to encourage professional developers and coding enthusiasts to transform their ideas into innovative, practical applications using the company’s low-code application development platform, Zoho Creator. The announcement was made during Zoho’s participation at LEAP, the global technology conference taking place in Riyadh.

Zoho will award the top five applications that solve a real-world challenge with gift vouchers worth up to SAR 10,000. In addition, the best submission will receive an iPad Pro and a chance to monetize their application by listing it on Zoho’s Marketplace. The applications can address needs in areas such as healthcare, government services, education, environmental issues, smart cities, business operations, and so on.

“We are excited to bring the first low-code hackathon to the kingdom. We believe that technology can help tackle everyday problems, and encourage young minds in Saudi to immerse themselves in this fun and engaging experience to build solutions that have the potential to make an impact,” said Izzedine Al Mozayen, Regional Manager for Saudi Arabia at Zoho. “Zoho Creator is a powerful and easy-to-use platform that is accessible to both professional developers and non-coders who can use it to create custom solutions and prototypes in a fast and efficient manner.”

“Leveraging low-code’s intuitive visual builders, readymade code blocks and numerous API integrations, participants can bring ideas to life to deliver sustainable solutions, as long as they have a clearly mapped idea and problem-solving skills,” Al Mozayen added. Zoho aims to contribute to accelerating the kingdom’s digital transformation goals, in line with the Saudi 2030 vision, by democratizing application development through low-code. According to Gartner, by 2024, low-code application development will be responsible for more than 65% of application development activity.

The hackathon is open for seasoned developers as well as citizen developers (non-coders) in Saudi Arabia; students who are 18 years and above and have a passion to build high-quality applications are also welcome to participate. The hackathon will be run virtually. The registration and ideation process will take place from February 1-15, 2022. Successful registrants will receive a virtual product walk-through to learn more about Creator, after which, they will be given two weeks to develop their applications.

The winners will be shortlisted and announced in March.