On November 1, the Chicago Connectory hosted Facebook’s first-ever Chicago Hackathon. Facebook’s Chicago Hackathon brought together developers, UX designers, and others to create solutions focused on gaming and entertainment, productivity and utility, and social cohesion.

The event kicked-off with a brief presentation highlighting Facebook’s perspective on engaging with developers. How can companies like Facebook best engage with them, enable them, and cater to them? Through Hackathons! It allows developers to connect, not only with each other, but with the ecosystem around them.

The first day of the Hackathon gave participants an overview of the different platforms Facebook has. The participants were also given a presentation on the Facebook Messenger chatbot, SparkAR, and given additional guidance on how to best prepare for judging, project submission, and their presentations.

Day two is where the teams got to work. Using their prior knowledge and the information provided on the first day, the teams of 2-4 participants had the