Prizes to Be Awarded in Daylong Hackathon Hosted by International City/County Management Association, Esri, and MindMixer

Redlands, California — August 19, 2013—Esri, the International City/County Management Association (ICMA), and MindMixer will host a hackathon at the 99th Annual ICMA Conference in Boston, Massachusetts, called Hackstock for #LocalGov. The event, which takes place Sunday, September 22, 2013, from 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Hynes Convention Center, is designed to improve government services to citizens through the creation of apps.

"This year's hackathon was inspired by a series of Esri/ICMA meetings and activities in which government executives discussed the potential apps they believed could improve civic engagement," says Christopher Thomas, director of government markets at Esri. "Excited with the opportunity to provide direct feedback to the civic hacking community, ICMA and Esri envisioned that Hackstock for #LocalGov will lead to solutions for local governments' most pressing issues."

Esri, ICMA, and MindMixer encourage developers, coders, and students in the New England area to participate in Hackstock for #LocalGov. ICMA's government members have agreed to provide sample datasets to fuel the day's hacking activities. Esri staff will create portals in ArcGIS Online for participants to access in addition to providing free mobile software development kits (SDKs) and application program interfaces (APIs) for creating maps for iOS and Android. Food and beverages will also be provided.

MindMixer and Esri have provided prize money for the winning apps. A grand prize of $2,000, first prize of $1,500, second prize of $750, and third prize of $250 will be awarded to the four best entries.

Judging criteria for Hackstock for #LocalGov are the following:

• Thoughtful use of civic data
• Quality of concept
• Analysis of community need
• Collaboration with local government leaders

Because Esri products are deeply integrated in governments, special consideration will be given to entries that incorporate Esri tools and data.

An online orientation webinar for the hackathon participants will be held on Saturday, September 21, from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Details on how to sign up for the webinar and the hackathon can be found at esriurl.com/hackstock.

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About ICMA
ICMA, the International City/County Management Association, advances professional local government worldwide. Its mission is to create excellence in local governance by developing and advancing professional management of local government. ICMA provides member support; publications, data, and information; peer and results-oriented assistance; and training and professional development to more than 9,000 city, town, and county experts and other individuals and organizations throughout the world. The management decisions made by ICMA's members affect millions of individuals living in thousands of communities, from small villages and towns to large metropolitan areas.

Contact: Cory Fleming, ICMA
Tel.: 207-854-1083
E-mail: Email Contact

About MindMixer
MindMixer is a tool used by more than 450 organizations to leverage the power of the Internet and social media to connect organizations with the community members who might not otherwise get involved. Good, informed ideas are out there, but many don't make it to the surface or are drowned out by the volume of usual voices. For organizations like cities, school districts, and health care providers, our easy-to-use product makes it possible for leadership to reach and have productive, two-way conversations with more community members than traditional approaches like offline town hall meetings and message boards. For community members, MindMixer provides a place to collaborate with peers and leadership, make meaningful contributions to important causes and projects, receive recognition for those contributions, and see results at the end. Ultimately, our vision is to create connected and contributing communities by promoting dialog online that leads to action offline. Visit us at www.mindmixer.com.

Contact: Michael Ashford, MindMixer
Tel.: 785-313-1434
E-mail: Email Contact

About Esri
Since 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, Esri software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. Esri applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. Esri is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at www.esri.com.

Esri, the Esri globe logo, GIS by Esri, ArcGIS, www.esri.com, and @esri.com are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of Esri in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions. Other companies and products mentioned herein may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective trademark owners.

Press Information:
Matthew DeMeritt, Esri
Tel.: 909-793-2853, extension 1-2930
E-mail (press only): Email Contact
General Information: Email Contact