Event though in Garage48 we work under an intense time frame to deliver as much as possible, then in "real life" there aren't overnight success stories. What seems first as a "overnight success" is actually the work and preparation of many months and years, attempts and sketches. Even Garage48 itself after 5 years since its launch in 2010 has really started to expand it's wings now internationally by hosting more events abroad than in Estonia. So we hope that you will keep on trying and failing, as you will indeed meet obstacles. Facing difficulties is crucial for learning and as they say - no pain, no gain.
Developing innovations for the tourism industry is surprisingly extraordinary. Birgit Prikk, Manager of Tourism Product and Destination Development at Enterprise Estonia Tourism Board said: "The tourism industry is very conservative and is not so keen on accepting new ways of thinking. The people who have been in the tourism business a long time tend to not let go of their beliefs, which is why the new success stories like AirBnB and Uber have come outside of the tourism sphere. What we wanted at Enterprise Estonia from this event is that people from outside of the tourism industry would come and think outside of the box. The projects that won this hackathon developed new ways to solve the existing problems in tourism."
All the teams have already support from the Ajujaht competition as well, which helps them to kick-start and promote their startups in Estonia. Even though all the seats at the competition are already filled, they gave special recognition for our winning teams! Harri Tallinn, the Team Lead of Ajujaht is excited to welcome LocalsMade in Ajujaht TOP30 and additional 2 teams to pitch at the TOP100 pitching competition. "I wish that all the teams will keep going forward. I really liked what I saw in the presentations and that's why they were picked for the competition. Now in Ajujaht they need to improve their business model, but if they figure that out then they have really good chances in moving forward in Ajujaht," said Harri on what's next for the teams.
To help all of the 17 teams to really come through and deliver for the demo presentations on Sunday, we need to thank our amazing mentors! Helen Kokk (MadeBy), Elise Sass (Microsoft), Maido Parv (Skype), Ülane Vilumets (Like A Local), Agu Suur (Clanbeat), Andres Susi (Cherry Media), Martin Grüner (Elkest Solutions), Alvar Lumberg (TransferWise), Willie Tran (Testlio), Richard Zulu (Outbox Uganda), Rene Rumberg (Idea Group), Anna-Greta Tsahkna (Timbeter) and Jordan Valdma (TransferWise)! Thank you for being so involved in helping the teams!
We also need to thank our jury members, who helped to make the most difficult decisions on Sunday evening:
Birgit Prikk - Manager of Tourism Product and Destination Development at (EAS) Enterprise Estonia Tourism Board
Mari Vavulski - Head of Startup Estonia
Rainer Aavik - Deputy Mayor of Pärnu
Harri Tallinn - Team Lead of Ajujaht competition
Jan Plaan - Elevaator Startup Labs
Elise Sass - Startup Lead at Microsoft Central Eastern Europe
Maido Parv - Visual Designer at Skype
Willie Tran - Product Manager at Testlio
Alvar Lumberg - Engineering Lead, Consumer Product at TransferWise
Ragnar Sass - Co-Founder & New markets at Pipedrive, Co-Founder at Garage48
As it was very difficult to choose he winners from all the teams, we are grateful to our sponsors who enabled us to give prizes to many great teams. So a very big THANK YOU to our partners, who not only supported the teams but also really believed in what we are doing. However, the teams that didn't get any prize should not feel bad, because many great IT companies have not gotten much as well.:)
But who are the winners of Garage48 Tourism Pärnu 2015 hackathon? These are the teams who delivered better than others and who have potential? We evaluated on 4 criterias - the product, understanding of the market, team work and presentation skills.
Overall winner
Prize: European conference trip of their own choice
Dashboard for event managers to track data about your event, before, during and after.
Team members: Laura Altin - Team lead, Siim Esko - Marketer, Art Koval - Tourism Sector Specialist, Jane Jakobson - Tourism Sector Specialist, Karl Tõnissoo - Frontend, Jaak Asser - Frontend, Martin Veeris - Backend, Marten Limbach - Design /UX Guru
Runner-up
Prize: Ajujaht TOP30 +
Elevaator Startup Labs prize worth of 7000€
Find outstanding local products wherever you are! LocalsMade helps you to support local economy by consuming the best of what’s made by local entrepreneurs.
Team members: Triin - tourism specialist, Katja - marketer, Piret - tourism specialist, Mari-Liis - back-end developer, Karl-Martin - back-end developer, Helena - designer, Veli-Johan - front end developer, Taavi - project manager, Shardee - project manager
Microsoft Special Prize + EAS prize
Prize: 4 Microsoft Band 2 models +
Ajujaht TOP100 pitch +
EAS Product Development Prize worth of 4000€
Getting international teams together to a specific location is a timekiller for the managers who have to book the trips for all of those people. Group2Fly will save time of booking and minimize the waiting time of the participants.
Team members: Ott Sarapuu - Business development, Kaie Tropp - Tourism expert, Annika Ülem - Marketing, Triin Mahlakõiv - Marketing Manager, Joel Mislav Kunst - Back end developement, Agni Raitar - Brand developement, Indrek Lasm - Front end development, Heli Aomets - Project manager
TransferWise Special Prize
Soundy
Prize: Kindle Paperwhites
The happy voice in a long-distance relationship! Soundy is a simple social wake up messaging that allows you to send mobile voice messages to your loved ones, who will receive it exactly the time when they have set their alarm clock to wake up.
Team members: Marit Sall - Manager, Caroline Rute - Manager's help, Kaspar Kuus -Marketing, Kaisa-Triin Karu - Marketing, Maarja Pajusalu - Designer, Aleksandra Varnaeva - Designer, Oleg Stasula - Developer, Mistory Michael - Developer, Uku A. Kudu - marketer
Cherry Team Spirit Prize
Prize: A stay in Käbi Puhkemaja
Our idea is to create an ultimate social networking platform for people interested in sports. Not only does Sportimate enable you to connect with your existing training buddies, but it also helps you to find new friends that share same hobbies as you. In addition, Sportimate helps you to effortlessly organize or sign up for new trainings, and even find new training opportunities/locations when traveling.
Team members: Madis Sulg - Project Manager, Toomas Välja - Design, Rain Aavisto - Back-End Developer; Mobile App Developer, Enrico Buntsel - Marketer, Merilin Vikkisk - Tourism Specialist, Heli Sepping - Marketer
Pärnu City Special Prize
Travelling - one of the finer things in life, an experience so personal and unique. As a tourist you are in isolation, a stranger, a John Smith. We at Vactiviti thought that it is time for a change. It is time to experience life like a local with locals. Time for genuine person to person adventures. Fishing trip with Tõnis in Saaremaa, making Swedish meatballs with Jens in Gothenburg or French poetry night in Lyon with Amelie? Imagine that in only two clicks you’ll be able to join in adventures like that, all over the world. Vactiviti - Find your adventure
Team members: Kristo Kraft - project leader, Märten Soo - developer, Martin Kuuspalu - developer, Tiiu-Triin Tigas - designer, Sten Krüünvald - marketer, Tatjana Mändla - marketer, Palle Kõlar - tourism sector specialist, Eileen Kvier - tourism sector specialist, Heidi Tiik tourism - sector specialist
Best Local Tourism Idea
Snippetguide
Prize: Visit Estonia Prize - suitcase full of Estonian goods
Imagine, on a beautiful sunny day You are travelling to a meeting in Berlin. You have 3 hours of free time between meetings and You would like to see sights on your own pace and get to know more about these sights than on a conventional tour... Snippetguide is the perfect solution for You... We create a free flexible personalized city tour for You according to your preferences, likes of similar users and available time.
Team members: Annabel Vardja - tourism specialist, Kristjan Tromp - marketer, Eero Elenurm - project manager, Roberts Dargis - developer
Fastest Going To Market
Shipitwise
Prize: Visit Estonia prize - suitcase full of Estonian good +
Ajujaht TOP100 pitch
Shipitwise - the easiest way for air travellers to ship bulky items. Air travellers are often faced with a problem. They have to consider fixed size and weight luggage limits by airlines, so they had to limit their shopping, because getting bulky items home is complicated. They also have a problem getting their sports equipment abroad, when going e.g. on a skiing or golf holiday. We provide air travellers with a simple application, where they can order shipping service and let us do the rest. We pick up your items, pack them on the spot and put together the most efficient transportation chain.
Team members: Aleksander Gansen - CEO & Project Manager, Olari Miiter - Designer, Ragmar Saksing - Front-End Developer, Ako Tulu - iOS Developer, Tõnis Truumaa - Back-End Developer, Anna Medjanskaja - Logistics Expert, Sander Gansen - Marketing, Helen Kokk - Designer (mentor)
Favourite of the Audience
Locals made
Prize: Exit Room tickets +
Latitude59 conference tickets
Thumbs up to all the other teams as well:
Agentizer is the most effective marketplace for travel agents and tour guides! It's a smart and easy online booking engine for travel agents to book tour guides with one time data entry, group messaging and prompt response from guides that accept the job.
Team members: Raimo Matvere - Team Lead, Dana Neemre - Tourism Expert, Kadri Kukk - PR and Marketing, Kristjan Roosild - Development, Riin Kirt - Design
EATSY
We are creating an all-in-one app to solve all the problems related to eating out while including social media features.
Team members: Egert Kalimulin - Projectlead, Airon Roosalu - Front end arendaja, Rein Pettai - Front end arendaja, Jussi Mõttus - Disain, Pille Triin Raitviir - Marketing, Ethan Janno Eigi - Marketing, Hemant Kumar - Back end developer
CARTUL
60% of all online purchases in Estonia are for services such as accommodation, events and tickets and the market share of online sales is growing fast. But as a service provider, setting up online sales on your own website is time consuming, expensive and needs IT specialist to manage. We offer local service providers a tool that allows you to set up online sales in 5 minutes, setup is free and the platform is so easy to use and maintain that anyone can do it. You can sell gift cards, event tickets or deal vouchers. Sell either on your own channels (website, emails, blog) or choose from a wide variety of top marketing channels to reach 1M+ new customers.
Team members: Priit Tomp - project manager, Maksim Novikov - Back-End Developer, Ilija Nikolajev - Designer, Evelin Kusman - Sales Manager, Triin Kallas - Turismi spetsialist, Barbara Lettens - Turismi spetsialist, Marko Tammest - Marketing
SECRETPATH
SecretPath is a combination of a walking city tour and GPS game for individual travellers. It is a brand new way to travel! You can visit new places, learn history and play at the same time.
Team members: Vadim - project manager, Dan - front end developer, Gerry - back end developer, Margo - back end developer, Jana - marketing specialist, Liis - tourism specialist + Raigo Lilleberg helping with design
TEAM TO TRAVEL
"Find your travel-buddy!"
Team members: Roman Hnatyk - Project Manager, Inna Golovina - tourist specialist, Alari Rajande backend developer, Omar Duarte - backend developer, Kaisa Järvpõld - frontend developer, Monika Sefer - Marketing Specialist, Marija Dmitrijeva - designer
ZENPLE
Approach your life and work with a fresh focus, with our journey to a Japanese temple. When there, you will rest, relax and refresh your mind.
Team members: Tsutomu Gabriel Komori - project manager, Fridrih Klausen - Design, Tiina Klausen - Design, Lauri Ööpik - marketing, Stuart Garlick - marketing, Marko Alas - backend developer, Mihkel Lennuk - tourism spec, Marit Piirman - tourism spec, Mattias Saldre - front end developer
THEN AND NOW TOURS
Then & Now Tours is a photo hunt tour guide app for tourists and locals who use smart devices, like to take photos and want to discover places’ history when walking around in the city. The app is based on historic maps and historic photographs. Unlike other virtual tour guides it offers you a personalized tour and challenges you to go and repeat the old photos by contributing “now” photos next to historic “then” pictures.
Team members: Marju Niinemaa -- frontend, Lauri Elias -- backend, Juhan Pant -- backend, Paul Lilje -- tourism / marketing, Egor Titov - tourism / marketing, Vahur Puik -- team lead / project manager
SUZET
Suzet is an app to provide an easier method of finding foods customers really want and need. Suzet is also one of the best marketing tools for a restaurant since users are able to subscribe to their offers via the app itself, ensuring habit creation.
Team members: Raul - Project manager, Designer, Front-end developer, Artur - Back-end developer, Priit - Marketer, Glenn - Marketing guru.
UP HERE
A website for space travel as a way of tourism!
Thank YOU also to our amazing organising team!
Thank you once again to our brilliant sponsors and partners!
