Safaricom and the seed fund Invested Development (ID) are seeking judges and mentors for the Safaricom AppWiz Challenge they jointly launched in May as part of the Safaricom Incubator. The AppWiz Challenge is designed to help Safaricom identify and nurture talent within the developer community on all aspects of application development and associated business opportunities. The participants will undergo training and mentorship throughout the incubation period.

Experts in agriculture, energy, water, transport, health, access to finance, education and marketing are sought to judge the submissions and mentors to guide the successful applicants. This would be a fantastic opportunity for experts in the mWomen community who are within reach of Nairobi to help develop the sector and ensure the needs of women are represented in this fantastic initiative.

Expert participation would require the following commitment:

Judges

• Early July: Review 5 -6 applications (2 pages) in first round, relevant to your area of expertise (this could be done remotely).
• 28 July: Judge the top 36 applicants in a Hackathon at the Safaricom Academy, Strathmore University, Nairobi, Kenya (in person)
• Early August: Participate in the final selection of the top 18 teams in Nairobi, Kenya (in person)

Mentors

August to October:

• Programme of weekly Wednesday evening dinners with a guest speaker from the mentoring panel, held at the Safaricom Academy, Strathmore University, Nairobi, Kenya
• Participate in a Tuesday or Thursday afternoon mentor session(s) to provide one-on-one guidance and input on your area of expertise.

Anyone interested in becoming a judge or mentor is invited to contact Sean Smith on [email protected] by 28 June, 2013.