It was a pleasure and honor to be selected as the event photographer for Go Code CO here in Colorado Springs the last week of March. Sincerely, I had a blast. And I must say I wasn’t necessarily expecting to- I mean, a weekend full of people creating apps and coding and making computer jokes that I don’t understand; it didn’t sound like the dream. But true confession: I loved it. There was so much creative and inspired energy in Epicentral Coworking over this weekend, and I met tons of amazing people!
Go Code Colorado is the FIRST EVER statewide app competition in the U.S., and the top 2 winners from each of the 5 cities involved will go on to Denver in April to meet with mentors, continue developing their apps, and have round 2 of judging. The overall winners receive $25,000 and the Secretary of State becomes their first customer!
Each app is meant to benefit the city’s entrepreneurs, and the 5 challenges they were meant to address are as follows:
1. Business Site Location
2. Competitive Landscape
3. Access to Capital
4. Higher Education Resources
5. Business Partners
The apps created are meant to help entrepreneurs and local business owners address these issues, helping them understand how to locate some of these things and/or do them better. So the weekend was full of computers and dry erase boards and gobs of post-its, but it was also full of laughter and yoga and Bristol beer and dance parties! Who knew coders could drop it low like that? (see slideshow for details) 
To get an inside peek, behind the scenes look, check out the slideshow I put together of Go Code Colorado Springs. It’s 5 minutes of goodness and obscure 80s music.
In conclusion, I for one had a delightful time at Go Code and am glad that this will be annual event here in Colorado Springs, the city with the MOST PARTICIPANTS in the state! I’d also love to congratulate the winners – Local Sage & Connectspot. You can check out the other finalist at GoCode (here).
I think these 2 ideas have what it takes to win the whole thing, but I’m a mere photographer so don’t go placing any bets based on that
