Invites coders to Trip Hack competition to create next generation travel apps
MasterCard wants to create a payments-enabled travel app that helps consumers making all kinds of journeys, whether they are day to day trips to their place of work, or even to holiday destinations further afield.
More than 100 coders, designers and developers from around the UK will take part in MasterCard’s Trip Hack, a three day hackathon that is being run by London & Partners, with the backing of British Airways and Transport for London (TfL).
The hackathon, which will take place at The Trampery in Shoreditch on June 3, 4 and 5, will see the coders form teams of six to come up with new products and services that will help travellers of all types.
MasterCard, British Airways and TfL will give the teams access to each of their APIs, to allow them to create and build new technology.
They will be judged on their entries, and the winners will take away £10,000 and the chance to pitch their idea at London Tech Week, with business support from The Traveltech Lab.
Elliott Goldenberg, head of digital payments at MasterCard UK and Ireland, said: “We are scouring London for the best talent, to help build a travel app that will enhance our journeys as consumers as we navigate our way from A to B. That doesn’t have to be within one city, it could be from one city to another. If we look at how contactless has changed the daily commute for Londoners, we are looking ahead to how future payment technology can unify transport systems for the greater benefit of the user.”
The hack builds on MasterCard’s efforts to find, develop and launch new commerce applications for a generation that thinks differently about money and payments. Aware that new ideas can come from anywhere, MasterCard has founded and supported initiatives such as Girls4Tech, the company’s education programme that showcases payments technology and engages employees as role models and mentors.
nother such initiative is Masters of Code, a hackathon series developed to challenge developers to create the next big application using MasterCard’s APIs. Earlier this year, the company also spearheaded the Fashion and Design Hack in New York City, teaming up with The New School’s Parsons School of Design to bring a forward-thinking, design-led approach to payments technology.
Glenn Morgan, head of digital business transformation at International Airlines Group (IAG) said: “This hackathon is a great opportunity for us at IAG to show the value of open innovation to create new products at speed. We know there’s a lot of untapped talent out in the developer community and we really feel that the best way to deliver innovation is to give people a platform to develop their ideas. It’s why British Airways was the first full service airline to open up our APIs. We want this to be an open process with the aim of delivering some great new ideas to the travel industry that really benefit customers.”
While Phil Young, head of online for Transport for London (TfL) said: “Millions of people every day use apps powered by our free open data to check the Tube, find a bus or see how the roads are running. We are keen to work with a wide range of partners to see how this data can deliver further benefits to customers and road users and this hackathon is a really helpful step in making that happen.”
