November 14, 2019 Welcome to TCO19!

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s that special time of the year again!! TCO19 is here and we’re excited to kick it off! Many of our members have been trying the entire year to get the magical ticket to TCO and only the best of the best got it! 

The TCO planning begins much earlier, in fact it began last year. Did you know that securing the location for TCO19 started right after TCO18? I stole this secret from our TCO Queen, but don’t let her know that. This year, I had the chance to work closely with the entire team in regards to TCO and I gotta say it’s amazing seeing the effort everyone puts in! 

From planning the regional events competitions that Harshit is managing so well (TCO19 India Regional Event, the Japan Regional event, the China Regional event and the South America one), to thinking about all the details for TCO19 – as in special food for members, computer setup or any other special requirements, Jessie takes the lead to get it all done.

As a Topcoder finalist, it’s always great to meet people face to face to connect even more. From working with the TCO core team to getting to know finalists who have qualified for the first time, or seeing your friends again, this is one of the best parts of TCO.

This year at TCO we have lots of exciting things going on:

• The competition for the 6 tracks: Algorithm, Marathon Match, Development, First2Finish, UI Design and QA (QA is a new track introduced this year and UI Design FInal will have a totally different format then in previous years, based on tournament style)
• The Innovation Summit event which will happen on Thursday, Nov 14th, and will bring up many customers and sponsors such as AWS, Google, IBM, GE, NASA, M&T Bank, Booz Allen Hamilton, and so many more
• The Customer Round Table which took place Wednesday
• Girls in STEM, which is happening on Friday. Students will come to TCO and be able to watch the competitions, vote on the She Will Connect STEM poster design contest, participate in an Intel coding competition, and listen to a panel of professionals currently in STEM fields 
• Hackaton taking place on Thursday, with prizes worth more than $20,000 plus the ultimate opportunity to further develop your idea with Shell, our sponsor for the Hackaton

If you are at home and want to be part of these events, you can watch the live broadcast with Nick and Will, which will be streaming up lots of the activities.

Wednesday was the event kick off! Even before the Welcome Reception started, the Marathon Match competition began at 8:30 AM and lasted for 10h 30m.  Once the competition closed, the other finalists started arriving. This year, finalists from 31 countries will battle to become the TCO19 champions.

After eating dinner and socializing, the finalists were invited by Nick to the opening ceremony. Cendhika made a great video for introduction of the finalists and about what Topcoder represents for all of us.

Once the introductions were done by Nick, then the CEO of Hess and Mike Morris, it was time for the finalists parade. This was the time members were presented on stage by country to greet everyone.

Feel free to check the other photos as we keep adding them.