Saratoga Go! competition begins
Contest aims to spark creative community innovations that will improve quality of life
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. >> Saratoga Go! launched its threemonth competition Thursday evening in a packed classroom at SUNY Empire State College.
“There’s a lot of creativity in this room,” said Saratoga Springs Commissioner of Finance Michele Madigan. “There’s a lot of ideas.”
The city partnered with IgniteU NY to challenge individuals, small businesses and software companies to create community innovations that will improve the quality of life for residents, businesses and institutions and visitors in any city.
Participants can submit any solution aimed at developing Smart Cities in the following categories, as outlined by the Smart City Road Map 1.0: connected community, public services, environmental innovation, education and training, intelligent infrastructure and a general open category.
“Solutions may include web apps, mobile apps, data visualization tools, social media platforms, games or connected products considered a component of the ‘internet of things,’” the Saratoga Go! website said.
Over the course of the competition, workshops designed to provide information and resources to help participants develop their applications will be offered. The first workshop, Ideation and Identifying Problems, will be offered April 20 at SUNY Empire State College.
For more information, visit https://www.saratogago.com/.
“Throughout the three months we’re going to offer a series of workshops that are going to really help people develop their apps but also just ignite that entrepreneurial spirit with the people in the Capital Region and beyond and hopefully that fire will burn long after this competition ends,” IgniteU NY’s New Ventures Consultant Elyssa Stewart said.
Nearly $10,000 has been raised for prizes.
Saratoga Go! will provide prizes to the best high school and college ideas and then two awards for the best and second best overall ideas. Each participant will pitch his or her idea June 21. The schedule, however, is subject to change. Participants have until May 1 to register.
IgniteU NY, based in Troy, is an entrepreneur development program.
“We really are just trying to spark that entrepreneurial spirit in the Capital Region, New York State and beyond,” Stewart said. “And really empower individuals to bring entrepreneurial thinking into whatever they do.”
Stewart and Madigan thanked the numerous sponsors for helping to make this competition possible.
Transfinder, a school bus routing software based in Schenectady, will be a gold sponsor for Saratoga Go!
“We see startups all the time and our desire is to help companies grow smart and grow fast,” Rick D’Errico, Empire State graduate and Transfinder public relations director, said.
“I have seen so many of these tech companies come together and how they collaborate, the kinds of things they can do.”
Other sponsors include Lightower, Stewart’s Shops, NYSTEC, StartFast Code and GDG Capital Region.
Jason Rotella, of StartFast Code and GDG Capital Region, couldn’t be more thrilled to be involved with the event.
“The innovative group in attendance at the launch event will undoubtedly produce game-changing smart city solutions,” said Rotella.
The Google Developer Group of the Capital Region and StartFast Code both foster the growth of the software development communities and skills in the Capital Region.
“[We] are proud to team up to provide a prize of up to four Google Homes for the SaratogaGo! challenge,” said Rotella.
Mary Caroline Powers, vice president for communications and government relations at SUNY Empire State, said the school’s thrilled to be a part of this competition.
“I, as a Saratoga resident, am so excited about the possibility [that] these fine minds are going to develop apps that will improve the quality of our lives,” said Powers.