Major League Hacking (MLH) started with a simple goal. Hackathons and the hacker community changed our lives and we wanted to share that experience with as many people as possible. Since then we’ve completely reinvented the hackathon experience and introduced more than 350,000 aspiring technologists to our community! Despite our early success, it’s still day zero for MLH. There are still millions of hackers out there who don’t have access to our resources and community, and today we’re taking an important step to change that by announcing that MLH’s Hackathon League is officially coming to Asia-Pacific this Fall!
Hackathons were different back then.
Things were different when MLH launched in 2013. Back then, hackers were lucky if a single hackathon happened each month. Things like hardware, software, prizes, workshops, and mentors were luxuries that only the biggest events could afford. Today MLH regularly powers more hackathons in a single month than we did during our entire first year of existence. No matter which event hackers attend, they have access to all the resources and mentorship they need to bring their ideas to life.
As our mission and impact grew, we knew we needed to find a way to inspire and empower hackers between hackathons and in parts of the world where we don’t have a physical presence. We started offering lightweight, educational events worldwide through programs like Local Hack Day and Localhost, and the demand has been overwhelming. Last year we were able to support over 1,000 events worldwide (a 50% increase from the previous year) where more than 90,000 hackers were able to learn, build, and share!
There was one part of the world that really surprised and inspired us. It felt like new communities were springing up there daily and growing to sizes we couldn’t have imagined. After hearing their stories first-hand, it quickly became clear that these hackers were eager to learn but didn’t have a place to put their newly acquired skills to use. This is a problem that MLH has lots of experience solving, but we hadn’t seen at this scale since we launched in Europe in 2014. We knew we had to do more.
MLH is coming to Asia-Pacific this Fall!
Today we’re excited to announce that MLH’s Hackathon League is officially launching in a new region this Fall – Asia-Pacific (APAC)! Starting in October, hackers in countries like India, Australia, and Singapore will have access to a series of MLH hackathons throughout the school year. We’ll be bringing the resources that hackers know and love with some new twists to support the unique needs and cultures of hackers in these countries.
We’re also excited to announce that our friends at Microsoft have agreed to come on as our launch partner in APAC to help us kick off this new League. Microsoft has already been working with MLH to support the APAC hacker community through Local Hack Day and Localhost, and now we’ll be working together to support an amazing series of hackathons too! In fact, we’ve already got our first two stops on the calendar – hackCBS and LNMHacks!
How can I get involved?
We hope that you’re just as excited as we are about MLH’s launch in APAC this Fall. If you want to get involved, here are a few ways you can help:
- Organize a Hackathon. Whether you already organize a hackathon or you’re trying to get a new one off the ground, we’d love to help. You can read about the benefits and requirements of organizing a hackathon with MLH’s support on our Membership Guidelines and apply to join the season.
- Join our Team. If you’re passionate about the hacker community and technical education, we’d love to work with you! We’re actively hiring for both full-time and part-time roles. Our full-time team will be based in India, starting with a General Manager for APAC. We’re also hiring MLH Coaches, who are paid representatives of MLH at hackathons in India, Australia, Singapore, and select other countries throughout the region.
- Meet with our team. Joe Nash and I (Swift, the CEO of MLH) will be traveling to India, Australia, and Singapore between October 14th and mid-November to get the new League up-and-running. We’d love to meet with the community and potential partners while we’re there. Just fill out the linked form and we’ll try to schedule some time to meet up!
You can find the season calendar on the new APAC 2020 Season Schedule. There are many more great events in India and beyond on their way. You can join our mailing list below if you want to stay in the loop on the latest additions:
Join our Mailing List for Updates!
Happy Hacking,
Swift
CEO, Co-Founder, & Commissioner Emeritus