Press Releases: U.S. Department of State Announces HackerNest as Fishackathon’s New Managing Partner

Office of the Spokesperson

Washington, DC

April 21, 2017

The U.S. Department of State’s Secretary’s Office of Global Partnerships (S/GP) is pleased to announce a new partnership with HackerNest, a nonprofit organization and movement that builds local tech communities worldwide, to carry forward Fishackathon.

First organized by S/GP to coincide with the “Our Ocean” conference in 2014, Fishackathon is a public-private partnership hackathon that aims to capitalize on the expansion of digital solutions to address sustainable fishery challenges. Hundreds of technologists and entrepreneurs around the world spend a weekend competing to build practical tech solutions to endemic problems defined by fisheries experts. Panels of distinguished judges evaluate these demos to select winners from each participating Fishackathon city, awarding the very best team the coveted Global Grand Prize.

Five cities across the United States took part in Fishackathon’s first year. By its third year, Fishackathon had expanded its reach to aquariums, tech hubs, and participants in more than 40 international cities.

A veteran producer of blockbuster cause-hackathons with partners that include Facebook, Airbnb, and the UK and Canadian Governments, HackerNest has run tech community-building events in 33 cities across 14 countries on five continents. The organization’s global reach and mission of economic development through tech proliferation make it uniquely well-positioned to continue growing the Fishackathon crowd-sourcing model and brand.

HackerNest and S/GP will launch Fishackathon 2017 on the weekend of November 18-19 in celebration of World Fisheries Day on November 21.

For more information, please visit—

Fishackathon: fishackathon.co | @Fishackathon

HackerNest: hackernest.com | @HackerNest | fb.me/HackerNest

Secretary’s Office of Global Partnerships: state.gov/s/partnerships | @GPatState | fb.me/GPatState

For media inquiries, please contact Anita Ostrovsky at OstrovskyA@state.gov or Shaharris at fishackathon@hackernest.com.

The Office of Website Management, Bureau of Public Affairs, manages this site as a portal for information from the U.S. State Department.
External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views or privacy policies contained therein.