Entrepreneurship

Learning is at the heart of the MAGIC’s STEP Challenge. Teams are invited to take risks and step outside of their comfort zones. It’s okay if you don’t finish or have a working app by the end. We consider this event to be a beginner-level experience. Come ready to learn or show your expertise and shine during your pitch to industry judges.

STEP Challenge

The STEP Challenge is an exciting and fun experience where people learn how to design, build, and pitch an app. These apps may change the world or maybe just change Carroll County.

Teams have people with diverse interests and experiences. All students with an interest in app development, graphic design, business, and/or marketing are encouraged to participate.

Teams of 2 or more high school and/or college students will compete to see who can build the best application idea. Bring your team and get started. Have an idea but no one to work with? No problem.

During the kick off of the in person event, our staff of mentors will help facilitate team formation for those participants who registered without a team. By bringing together different skill sets, a well rounded team is created.

Don’t know how to code? That is okay! No experience necessary. PLUS, great teams need diverse skill sets, including graphic design, business, marketing, and business/finance. The STEP Workshops will provide you with a crash course on all aspects of bringing a technology solution to life, including new and innovative tools to help attain your goals.
Participants should come ready to identify a problem, design a solution, and build an app!

Event Day

Workshops

The STEP experience begins with our workshops. We will provide pre-recorded workshops for our participants to watch at your convenience. , These workshops, led by industry leaders, will provide an overview of how to design, build, and pitch an app. Also included are recommendations on what tools are available to get you started.

Team Collaboration

Teams will have their own space to innovate and build the next big app. This is the sprint! Your team will collaborate to create a viable product and bring it to life. Our volunteer mentors will be roaming the halls, looking in on teams to help with any issues or questions they may have. There will be several milestones that teams will be required to meet during the build cycle. It’s intense, it’s thought provoking.

The Pitch

The entire community is invited to watch the event live streamed on Facebook or YouTube to cheer on their favorite team and to celebrate the incredible accomplishments of the students. Industry professionals will judge your team on a variety of goals. Think Shark Tank for Students! Refer to the STEP Rubric available on our Resources page for judging criteria. Presentations begin at 7pm, and teams will pitch their apps to the judging committee. Each team will have 10 minutes to present and answer any questions from the judges. Winners will be determined after judge deliberation. Bring your best to wow the judges.

Rules

The primary objective of the event is to meet people while having fun building something new. Don’t do anything that would detract from the fairness or fun of the event.
The bulk of the construction should happen during the scheduled collaboration time frame. It’s not going to be a fun event if some teams show up with super-elaborate projects that they’ve been working on for months. Teams that do this will be automatically disqualified.
Brainstorming, planning, and mock ups are fine to prepare in advance of the Event. You are also allowed to consider what APIs and third party services you plan to use.
You can use whatever tools and spaces are at your disposal. You’re strongly encouraged to attend the Workshops and work at the event location because that’s where the real excitement and energy will be! In order to qualify for the prizes, you and your team must be present meet with the judges to present your project on the last day of the Hackathon event.
Projects must be submitted to by 6;30pm on Saturday. Instructions for submitting these projects will be provided during the Kick-off Event.
Each participant may compete on one team only- not on multiple teams/projects. Teams will be limited to 2-5 people per team to keep competition fair and healthy. Please list all team members that contributed to your project on your presentation in the “Team Members” slide, even if they did not officially sign up for the hackathon. It is not fair to receive extra outside help without disclosing that information so the judges can take that into consideration (don’t try to make it look like 2 people did the work of 4).
Inappropriate content or language will not be tolerated. Respect is expected of all participants.
Anyone in violation of these rules (at the organizer’s discretion) will be asked to leave and their project will be deemed ineligible compete.

FAQ

WHAT IS THE AGE REQUIREMENTS FOR THIS EVENT?

This event is for high school and college aged students. Nontraditional college students are also encouraged to participate.

DO I HAVE TO HAVE A TEAM TO PARTICIPATE?

We encourage our participants to gather classmates and friends to form a team before registration. That being said, you can also register as an individual and we will place you on a team during the event. Be sure to register with your particular interests so we can create well rounded teams with various interests and experience.

IS THIS EVENT JUST FOR TECHIES?

No! In order to design, build, and pitch an app you’ll need more than just technical skills on a team. Each team will have to identify who is covering the following skill sets: Software Development, Marketing, Business, and Graphic Design/Creative.

WHAT IF I’VE NEVER BUILT AN APP?

That’s okay! The MAGIC STEP challenge is a beginner-level experience. It’s a safe place for you to learn. The workshop will give you a crash course in the basics like app development, graphic design, business plans, marketing concepts, etc.

TO COMPETE IN THE STEP, DOES EVERY MEMBER OF MY TEAM HAVE TO BE PRESENT FOR ALL WORK HOURS?

No. We understand that students have a lot going on. If a team member(s) has to spend some time away from the collaborative effort, that won’t disqualify them your team from competition.

WILL THERE BE PEOPLE TO HELP US THROUGHOUT THE DAY?

Yes. Mentors and coaches will be available during the day. If a mentor or coach is not available you can post your questions on Discord and ask for help in our #mentors channel and we will send someone your way.

SATURDAY IS A LONG DAY, WILL I HAVE TIME TO GET FOOD?

Yes. We make keeping fueled easy. We supply Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner event day. We will also have snacks and drinks available for that in between time when you need a boost.

Resources

We have put together some resource to help you.

Educational Resources

General coding and design resource –w3school.com

Mobile app builders

Buildfire (free 30 day version) – Buildfire.com
Thunkable app builder (free trial) – Thunkable.com

Team Resources

Team Rubric: This is the form that the judges will use to score your final project. This will give your team an idea of what the judges are looking for, and what aspects of the process hold more weight.

Pitch Deck: This is the pitch deck format required for final project submission