APPHACK @ AU 2012

Some interesting news has come through from my friend Micah Dickerson, a Product Manager on the AutoCAD team. He organised the Autodesk-internal APPHACK event I travelled across to the Bay Area for, earlier in the year, and he’s just launched another one that’s open to Autodesk Developer Network members and runs until November 14th, with the main prize-giving held at AU 2012 in Las Vegas.

There are some nice prizes up for grabs:

• Grand prize: US$5,000
• 2nd prize: US$2,000
• 3rd prize: US$1,000
• 4th prizes: 10 finalists will receive a recently-released tablet computer worth ~$500 *

[* This being the week it’s been for tablet announcements, that could really mean anything! :-)]

If you’re eligible to enter – you’re an ADN member and can make it to Las Vegas to demo your entry on November 26th – then all you have to do is either write a cool app or plugin for AutoCAD 2013, or dig one up that you’ve already written (but not made commercially available). It’s worth noting that you get extra points for keeping in the theme of the event, “Connecting AutoCAD to the Cloud” but that this theme “is open to creative interpretation”. For more information, check out the main contest page (and be sure to read the official rules, of course).

I really enjoyed participating in the Autodesk-internal APPHACK: while this one is a bit different – as participants are doing so virtually – I’m definitely looking forward to seeing the entries when I get to Las Vegas. And drinking a beer or three with the finalists at the ADN party afterwards, of course…