OREANDA-NEWS. The annual "47 Hours" hackathon for youth IT start-up projects was held in Rostov-on-Don. Center-invest Bank was a strategic partner for the event.

The "47 Hours" hackathon is held annually with support from Center-invest Bank. Every year the number of programmers taking part has increased. The participants have 47 hours to turn their IT idea into a working prototype that can be demonstrated to investors.

This year the participants demonstrated their results to a panel of judges headed by the Rostov Region Minister for Information Technologies and Communications. Yuri Bogdanov, Deputy Chairman of Center-invest Bank's Executive Board, was also on the panel. Mr Bogdanov is a member of the Rostov Region's Council of IT Systems Developers.

As in previous years, the young programmers not only worked on their own projects but also attended masterclasses held by leading experts in information and telecommunications technology. Mr Bogdanov also gave one of the masterclasses.

Business and technology experts worked with all the teams during the event. Their objective was to improve the business models and the technical implementation of the projects, and also to help the teams channel their experience and energy in the right direction.

Commenting on the event, Yuri Bogdanov said, "Supporting new entrepreneurs and enterprise in general is one of Center-invest Bank's priorities. During the "47 Hours" hackathon we see the enthusiasts' social benefit and commercial projects acquire followers right there and then. They form teams and set themselves ambitious objectives, which they pursue in an atmosphere of intensive creativity."