Call for Code 2020 IBM Awards – Winner Reveal
Today was the grand reveal of the Call for Code 2020 IBM (internal) Challenge award winners. I've written a few times about Choirless, the project myself and some colleagues have been building recently.
This has been an epic journey, starting with a zygote of an idea and a hastily scribbled note of what it could be, through to winning the IBM UK Labs Call for Code competition, and then through to the final three projects in the global competition.
I'll spare you the anguish and let you know that Choirless came 2nd place. We are amazed at how far we have come, and that we have developed the idea into a fully operational public system.
We currently have over 100 choirs signed up for our private beta test at the moment and letting them through steadily as we test the system. We've have church choirs, we've got a 250-piece marching band interested, we've had a choir for blind children in Scotland contact us. It really has been amazing. And I've had the pleasure of working with two fantastic colleagues, Sean Tracey and Glynn Bird.
Thanks to everyone who has been involved, and congratulations to the other finalists Team Carmen (1st place) and Team W.A.V.E (3rd)
Below is the recording of the winner reveal and the presentation. Choirless was the very last to be interviewed, at around the 52 minute mark. Alas time was running short so we didn't get to say much. And I didn't get to make the quip I've had running around in my head all day about Choirless and IBM scaring Oracle into making a move on TikTok. ;–)
From here we go onwards and upwards. Coming up next month will be the big gala reveal of the parallel external competition for Call for Code, on October 13th.
The ceremony is filled with special speakers ranging from but not limited to the host Van Jones, host of CNN's “The Van Jones Show” and “The Redemption Project,” to Chelsea Clinton and IBM CEO Arvind Krishna. Mark your calendars to come and celebrate the awards and you might even see a surprise appearance from Choirless if all goes to plan ;–)