About the Hackathon
Who Should Attend?
The BROTHER HACKATHON (the “Contest”) is designed to encourage programmers to submit software apps that integrate with Financial, CRM, or POS applications (such as but not limited to QuickBooks, Quicken, Sage, Goldmine, Square and etc.) with a Brother QL Label Printer, P-touch label maker, or a Full-size scanner (“Brother Device”). Each person or team will need to build an application that utilizes a Brother Device to print labels, receipts or use of full-page scan outputs (invoices, logs, contracts, etc.) from one of the Financial, CRM, or POS applications as part of their application in compliance with these Official Rules. Judged by key influencers within the industry, the Contest seeks to identify talented programmers from across the U.S. The prizes will be awarded to the best entries submitted. Winning submissions will be as determined by the Judges (defined below) in accordance with the Judging Criteria defined in the Official Rules.What Should We Do?
An iOS or Android coder can spend as little as 30 minutes downloading the SDK and printing your first label within minutes. This year we also added support for Flutter developers. Together you will try to complete the mobile app as much as possible using any one of the Brother's printers. There are lots of things you can do. The best part is that you can start now. But why wait? Please visit the FAQ below to download SDK instruction, sample code tutorials (Objective-C, Swift, Android, Flutter, Cordova), and reading the optional reference guide. Check out our meetup group for all the workshops.How to Register?
Click here to get your free Eventbrite ticket! Tickets are available on February 15, 2022..What are the Prizes?
There are a total of 9 prizes provided by Brother: 1. Platinum Award ($5000), 2. Gold Award ($1000), 3. Silver Award ($500), 4. Mini-Hackathons (cash prizes and signup bonuses will be announced in the workshops). All prizes are per team.Agenda
Our two-day virtual hackathon will be jam-packed with fun activities and coding workshops! At the first night of the event, each team will be given a 3-minute introduction via Zoom Video Conferencing. Teams will get together to prepare the presentation. Participants are welcome to continue their projects with overnight virtual hackathon with one-on-one support from Brother engineers. On Saturday, teams will complete the apps. Each team will shoot a 3-minute video, and upload it to Youtube. There will be several panel discussions, including multiple virtual rooms to assist participants with coding, design, and video production. Winners will be announced at 7PM, with award ceremony and a raffle of many great prizes. Please note that all time PDT.
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5:00 PM PDT
Online Check-in
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5:30 PM PDT
Welcome and Introduction
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6:10 PM PDT
Team Introduction
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7:30 PM PDT
Q&A. Overnight Continuous Hacking
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09:00 AM PDT (optional)
Q&A
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2:00 PM PDT
Video Submission Due
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3:00 PM PDT
Live Viewing Presentation Judging
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5:00 PM PDT
Dinner Break ($30) while Judges Finalize Scores, Raffles, and Fun Stuff
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6:30 PM PDT
Winner Announcement, Q&A, Award Ceremony
Judges & Speakers
Register
Our Sponsor
Brother International Corporation has earned its reputation as a premier provider of home office and business products, home appliances for the sewing and crafting enthusiast as well as industrial solutions that revolutionize the way we live and work. Brother International Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Brother Industries Ltd. With worldwide sales exceeding $6 billion, this global manufacturer was started more than 100 years ago. Bridgewater, New Jersey is the corporate headquarters for Brother in the Americas. It has fully integrated sales, marketing services, manufacturing, research and development capabilities located in the U.S. In addition to its headquarters, Brother has facilities in California, Illinois and Tennessee, as well as subsidiaries in Canada, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Peru and Mexico. For more information, visit www.brother-usa.com.
FAQ
We will update this FAQ for all questions submitted to us. Feel free to use the contact information here, or via the meetup messaging.
First of all, signing up and downloading SDK takes less than 10 minutes. Then you will spend up to 2 hours to get your first iOS, Flutter, or Android sample app running, including printing your first label from a brand new QL-1110NWB printer we shipped you. After that, you can invest as much or as little time as you wish to create a complete app to submit as your hackathon entry. We offer plenty of help along the way. We are 24/7 on the Slack channel, eager to help. More than 95% of our past contestants thoroughly enjoyed the hackathon, and we believe you will too.
Brother QL-1110NWB printer, free when you sign up for the hackathon, is the most versatile thermal printer in the market. You can print a tiny QR label at 1"x1", signage longer than 30 feet, or anything in between, such as 4"x6" shipping labels at 300 dpi, packaging labels, POS receipts with variable length, quick invoice/job estimate, gift cards/tickets, etc. It is a professional-grade printer designed to last for a long time, and it will work in some extreme environments. We want you to explore its endless possibilities.
You can use QuickBooks' accounting and payment API to print invoices and receipts. You can also use Square API to process POS transactions. Here is a link to a google spreadsheet with a list of the most popular vendors and their developer programs. Inside, you will also see work-in-progress sample apps you can download and try in your apps. There are plenty of great suggestions and step-by-step instructions.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER AND TO DOWNLOAD SDK. When filling out information, please enter "BROTHER HACKATHON 2022" under Company Name. Proceed to download the SDK after the registration. Both iOS and Android are currently running on 4.3.1. All integrators are recommended to be using version 4 SDK’s. If any previous contestants participating this year, they must upgrade to v4. This will assure cross-compatible down the road. By the way, it only takes minutes to download the SDK and get your first sample app running in no time.
Yes, the SDK includes a fully functional sample app for Objective-C, Swift, and Android. It should take you no more than 30 minutes to have your sample code running and have your first beautiful label printed. CLICK HERE TO READ THE BROTHER HACKATHON UNOFFICIAL SDK GUIDE.
Yes of course. Coders who wish to work alone can participate as an individual. We also welcome industry executives who wish to challenge coders and designers with any problems they wish to solve.
Click here to view our Big Idea Book. Brother Hackathon organizers have put together this reference guide for everyone. It contains lots of information on the verticals and the horizontals. Verticals include all U.S. 20 sectors, from Agriculture to Public Administration. It also includes product information, success stories, links to Brother's websites, and additional resources. Enjoy!
If you sign up before May 10th, you are guaranteed to receive a Brother QL-1110NWB printer and supplies or a Brother Cube XP. You can get both, and add a Brother DS-940DW mobile scanner, if your app requires it. We will begin shipping the printers to you on March 24th. If your app requires more supplies, please contact the organizer. Click here to view the entire product catalog. If you have successfully published your app to the app store, you may request more printers from this catalog. Your app should work on any of the printers with little or no change at all. This bonus is worth in the upward of $10,000 or more.
Yes, we do. Click here to see all Brother professional labels and mobile printers. I did a YouTube video four years ago for our first Brother Hackathon. It has more than 20,000 views. It demonstrates how you can unbox your QL printer, build your sample app, and print your first label in just a few minutes. We will add many new videos throughout the hackathon. So be sure to subscribe to it while you are at it.
Please email SDKSupport@brother.com. Brother usually responds within a business day. You may also contact the organizer from here, or via the meetup site. We normally respond within 2 business hours.
Yes, of course. Here is a link to a sample Xamarin iOS binding with Brother SDK. CLICK HERE. For more information, contact us.
Yes, of course. Here is a link to an instruction by a developer who had successfully done so. CLICK HERE. There are a lot of information available online to show you how to import third-party native SDKs into React Native. Feel free to contact us for more information.
We welcome Flutter developers. We encourage cross-platform development. You are free to use the Github by Frank H. for a working iOS and Android app. CLICK HERE
Not a single penny. We will provide a QL-1110NWB or equivalent label printer for each registered team. You may keep the equipment if you attend and complete the hackathon.
The theme is "Mobile App Printing Innovations." Do you know that there are 1000 plus industries in the U.S.? Every one of them can be an opportunity and a niche market. Be creative, be courageous, and please spend a few minutes read the hackathon rules.
The judging criteria are clearly defined inside the hackathon rules. All judges are from Brother International Corp., None Brother's employees or family members are eligible to participate in the competition.
Super easy! Official sign up is available on February 15th, 2022. Feel free to contact us if you wish to learn more.
Yes it sure does. We welcome Android, iOS, Flutter developers to participate in this hackathon. There are lots of information on Brother's website for Android developers. If you wish to help other developers, please reach out to us and we will set up a hotline for you.
Once you have successfully registered at Eventbrite, we will ship to you via USPS Priority Mail.
Yes, you certainly can. There is no catch. Obviously you must attend the hackathon and compete. If you decide NOT to compete at the hackathon, simply ship the printer back in the original box vis USPS.
You can participate as an individual. You can find your coding and design partners from your network of people. There are lots of iOS and Android meetup groups in the U.S.
Hackathon is a lot of fun. More than 90% of hackathon first-time attendees return again and again. Brother Hackathon is many times better because you get free hardware, you can start early, you get lots of support via workshops, and you can ask questions anytime. The judging criteria is clearly defined under the rules and terms and conditions link from this website.
Students are always welcome. We normally have 2 or 3 teams from colleges or coding schools. Keep in mind that you should possess the basic coding skills in either iOS or Android platform. Most of our student teams from the past worked extra hard and they did win some of the top prizes. Many of them are getting internship jobs quickly because of the experience. So, why not?
Brother Hackathon is unique because each team is being treated like a VIP start-up. We support teams from idea inception to the completion of the project. With that said, team formation is done prior to the event. Please read the terms and conditions of our hackathon. You are welcome of course, to join any of our pre-hackathon events, which we have at least 2 per months. You can meet other developers, designers and pitch your idea. Again, at the event, only those who already have a team can participate. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions. We really appreciate your interest.
Unfortunately only U.S. residents can compete at our 2022 Brother Hackathon. Please read the hackathon's terms and conditions.