A GATHERING of those with a passion for technology and the digital, business, marketing or creative skills to match will take place next month.

The Big IoT Hack Weekend takes place from Friday, 26 to Sunday, 28 April, with teams of digital developers, entrepreneurs, hobbyists and students putting their skills to work on a project of their choice.

The challenge will be to develop new smart technology to make life easier for local residents, communities and businesses.

Jointly organised by the #GetLaunched collective, that brings together Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, the SETsquared Partnership, TechJuice, DeskLodge and Incuhive, the weekend will be supported by Microsoft and Pycom and aims to help boost Basingstoke’s digital economy.

Taking place at DeskLodge, in Basing View, participants will be invited to work in teams to develop a business plan and prototype solution before pitching them to a panel of expert judges who will select a winner.

Mentors from Microsoft and Pycom will be attending to give their support and the winning team will get the opportunity to create a company based on their ideas with six months’ free business support from SETsquared, an university business incubator.

The hardware for internet connection and a cloud environment will be supplied to enable participants to gather data, pass it up to the cloud and build their product – they just need to bring a laptop or tablet.

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s cabinet member for digital innovation and inclusion councillor Hannah Golding said: “Technology is evolving so quickly and this provides us with near limitless opportunities.

“The Big IoT Hack builds on our previous successful events and is a fantastic platform for showcasing that Basingstoke is at the centre of technological innovation.

“It promises to be an intensive but fun weekend and I’m sure it will attract some of the best technical and entrepreneurial talent in the borough. I’m looking forward to seeing some exciting projects emerge over the weekend.

"It’s an opportunity for anybody with entrepreneurial and technical skills to make their mark and it could lead to the formation of new start-up companies in the borough.”

Find out more at basingstokebiz.com/Hackathon.

Those interested in taking part, should register at https://thebigiothack.eventbrite.com.