The AR/VR Africa Metathon is a series of programmes and activations under the Meta global XR fund aimed at supporting African XR talents to build innovative solutions that demonstrate various use cases of the metaverse in Africa.
The AR/VR Metathon will feature three major components including a training program, an Africa-wide hackathon which will take place across 16 countries in Africa physically and open to everyone virtually, followed by an intensive bootcamp to further develop solutions. These components will run from Mid-August – April 2023.
Programme Details
- AR/VR Africa Pre-hackathon training: The AR/VR Africa Pre-hackathon training is a programme to acquire skills or upskill in XR. Everyone who signs up will have access to curated learning resources on the Discord server, as well as XR experts who will provide mentorship, and facilitate masterclasses and workshops. In addition, they will run trainer-led XR classes from September – November 2022.
- AR/VR Africa Hackathon: The AR/VR Africa Hackathon is an African competition and opportunity to create with, and learn about Virtual and Augmented Reality. The hackathon is fun, fast-paced, challenging and highly rewarding. You get to work on project ideas with developers/coders, designers, strategists, and enthusiasts and win prizes. The hackathon is a hybrid event where you will use your XR skills to create solutions to everyday problems in Africa. You can participate in the hackathon – offline – in one of the 16 In-person 48 hour Hackathons across Africa, or -online – in the Virtual Hackathon. The online & offline hackathons will take place in November and December 2022.
- AR/VR Africa Bootcamp: Following the 2022 AR/VR Africa Hackathon, 1st place teams in the different countries/country groups of the hackathon will have the opportunity to participate in our bootcamp. The AR/VR Africa Bootcamp is an intensive 3-month virtual programme which will support the teams to advance their solutions. Teams will receive financial and technical support to build out their MVPs, alongside a structured curriculum, facilitated by industry experts, based on the start-up equation. It will conclude with a Demo Day where teams will pitch their solutions to investors. They will present a range of extended reality solutions representing the 2022 verticals. After the bootcamp, teams are expected to successfully apply for incubator and accelerator programmes.
Eligibility
- Open to everyone! Developers, programmers, UI/UX designers, artists, animators, storytellers, enthusiasts, professionals, students, and all that want to spend time creating solutions with augmented, virtual, and mixed reality;
- Applicant must be resident in an African country.
Application
Once you register and join the discord server, your learning will begin! Remember, anyone can take part in a hackathon regardless of their level of expertise.
