Mr. Somkid Jiranuntarat, Chairman of KASIKORN BUSINESS-TECHNOLOGY GROUP (KBTG), said technology and design talents are now major drivers of Thai digital and innovative economy. KBTG believes human resource development to be the key success of the country's future and, as a leading technology company, places significant importance on skills enhancements of key resources such as software developer, data scientist and designer. KBTG organized the first TechJam competition in 2017, featuring hackathons in three areas namely Coding, Data Science and Design. The event was well accepted with more than 400 teams participated in the final.
Aiming to expand the opportunities of this year's competition beyond Bangkok, KBTG is inviting Thai from across the country to compete in TechJam 2018, under the theme – "Tomorrow Squad", to show off their passion, skills and creativity in this challenging, yet fun, competition designed to seek top talents and showcase Tech World to the general public.
TechJam 2018 consists of competitions in three skill areas, so called squads; 1) Code Squad for software development, 2) Data Squad for data science: and 3) Design Squad for creative problem solving and design. Anyone who are between 15 - 60 years old with any educational and professional background can apply to compete in TechJam 2018. Application can be submitted as a team of one and up to two team members for one of the three squads. The team can choose to compete in one of the four regional competitions before moving on to the national competition, if qualified.
TechJam 2018 online application will open from July 19 to August 10, 2018 at www.techjam.tech. In addition to the online application, there will also be on-ground application events coming to your regions on the date and time as shown on the website. For more details and updates, please visit www.techjam.tech.
The auditions and the regional competitions will take place from August 14 to September 27, 2018 in SONGKHLA for the southern region, KHON KAEN for the northeastern region, CHIANG MAI for the northern region and BANGKOK for the central region.
The final competition will be held on Saturday, November 3, 2018 at KBTG Building, Chaeng Watthana.
TechJam 2018 awards are as the following; the 1st, 2nd and 3rd regional winning teams from each squad will receive cash prizes of 30,000, 20,000 and 10,000 Baht along with trophies and certificates respectively. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd national winning teams from each squad will receive cash prizes of 100,000, 50,000 and 30,000 Baht together with trophies and certificates respectively. The winning teams from the national competition will also be invited to travel to Silicon Valley, the USA, on an exclusive trip organized by KBTG, without any expense throughout the journey to experience the cutting edge technologies and design innovations of world's leading tech giants first hand.
For the general public, TechJam 2018 can be followed and enjoyed online over the course of three months. The new era of tech competitions will broadcast on social media channels to showcase the Thai talents and their passion. Stay tuned on the latest movements of TechJam 2018 at www.techjam.tech and on Youtube, Facebook and Twitter titled TechJam Thailand.
Mr. Somkid emphasized that TechJam is a tech battle that those interested in programing, data science, and creative problem solving can't afford to miss. It's the best way to show off your skills and win a lifetime opportunity to experience up-close and personal the innovative culture of Silicon Valley. Joining the competition will also be the best way to meet and build connections with other competitors sharing similar interests. Mr. Somkid believes that the new concept and format of this year's competition will allow the general public insights into the heart and soul of our tech and design talents. KBTG expects at least 3,000 talents from all over Thailand to take part in this challenging competition.