Las Vegas — Barrick's BattleBorn series brings together Nevada's tech and innovation communities for a series of open innovation events and competitions in Las Vegas from March 2 - 12.
Barrick Gold Corporation has joined forces with Cisco, Switch and Unearthed to provide a premier opportunity to build skills, scale ventures and engage with great talent in technology and innovation.
Individuals can get involved by competing in a hackathon, exhibiting a startup, learning about developments in the resource sector or networking with industry leaders.
“Barrick is excited to host the state’s first global mining hackathon in Las Vegas,” said Michael Brown, president, Barrick USA. “We are at the forefront of revolutionizing traditional mining through digital integration, and we look forward to bringing our technology partners to Las Vegas and to working with talented innovators to generate fresh ideas for our industry.”
BattleBorn, a name inspired by the Nevada state flag, was created by Barrick to infuse the resource industry with bold ideas and exponential technologies. BattleBorn includes a series of boot camps, a 54-hour hackathon, and a startup exchange, that will bring together competitors, observers, industry leaders, and startups.
Hackathon– A 54-hour high-intensity programming competition for participants, over the weekend of March 9 – 11, to solve innovation challenges in the mining industry. A panel of judges will evaluate the potential applicability to real-world industry. Prizes, totaling $20,000, will be awarded to the top teams. Silicon Foundry, an innovation platform with deep ties in Silicon Valley, will be offering a winning team exposure to its network and startup best practices.
“Hackathons like BattleBorn are a key initiator of outside-the-box digital thinking that will drive future success in the mining industry. We are delighted to support Barrick as they transform mining,” said Brad Bechtold, National Director, Mining Transformation, Cisco Canada.
Boot Camps– On March 3, challenge descriptions will be shared during a session where participants will engage mentors in a question and answer session. On March 7, Amazon Web Services, Barrick, Cisco, Silicon Foundry and Unearthed will lead a tech onboarding session. The workshops will provide participants with the tools and techniques they will need to succeed over the hackathon weekend.
Startup Exchange – On March 12, an exhibition-style event will be held to showcase early-stage ventures from around the world. The Startup Exchange is a platform for industry leaders to engage with these ventures and find ways to deploy their solutions.
“Globally, Unearthed is driving a mission for the resources sector – to innovate the way it operates and introduce new technologies with the ability to improve current practices. The hackathon events we’ve produced with Barrick continue this mission,” said Zane Prickett, director, Unearthed.
The ultimate goal of BattleBorn is to have a distinctive impact on Nevada’s growing technology and innovation community.
All events will take place from March 3 – 12 at Rob Roy’s Innevation Center, powered by Switch, located at 6795 S Edmond Street, 3rd Floor, Las Vegas.
For more information about the BattleBorn series of events, including participant registration and ticket purchase, visit www.battleborn.tech.
