It’s one of the most common complaints facing local governments across Australia – barking dogs. Now Ipswich City Council has partnered with innovation hub Fire Station 101 to find new solutions for an old problem.
This weekend’s Barkathon2017 will bring together teams of tech entrepreneurs, developers and environmentalists to investigate:
- Are there new ways to capture complaints?
- What tools can we put in the hands of our residents?
- What technologies, platforms or apps will improve the customer experience?
- What can we do to make people’s lives more connected and enriched?
Barkathon2017 is open to anyone who has a great idea, and the passion and motivation to match.
The two-day event will include networking, designing, coding, building and customer engagement with mentor support from entrepreneurs and IT, animal management and data specialists.
There’s up to $30,000 in product development funding on the line for the winning team/s and the weekend will wrap with a pitch to guest judges.
Barking dog complaints represent one of the largest service request types for all of Ipswich City Council.
Traditional ways of addressing complaints can be resource intensive as they are treated on a case-by-case basis, and intervention can often result in inconsistent or short-term fixes.
We’re inviting people to help us discover and develop solutions that will benefit dog owners, their neighbours and the wider community through technology and innovation.
The winners will not only help our community and our pets, they will also start a new globally scalable business.
Barkathon2017 will be held at Fire Station 101, 101 Limestone Street, Ipswich from 5pm on Friday, 1 December to 5pm on Sunday, 3 December.
Participants will be provided with council’s animal management data, and learning support sessions on Saturday and Sunday will help boost business models.
The winning team/s will retain intellectual property ownership of their product once it is developed and launched and Ipswich City Council will become their first customer.
Meals and drinks will be provided throughout the weekend.
For more information or to register go here.