Go Code Colorado Launches 2021 Business Solutions Challenge Competition

Denver, January 6, 2021 – Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold today announced the launching of Go Code Colorado’s Business Solutions Challenge.  Now in its eighth year, Go Code Colorado challenges teams from all over the state to use public data in order to solve real-world issues involving Colorado’s business and non-profit community. 

In the fall of 2020, Go Code Colorado revamped the competition to address Colorado’s diverse business landscape by creating two separate challenges, which are both fully-virtual.  The challenges are open to business owners, entrepreneurs, technology professionals, those involved in local, state, or regional economic development, or those who just love solving problems with public data.

Registration is now open for the Business Solutions Challenge, the more “traditional” competition of years past, centered on developing insight and solutions that address key Colorado business problems using public data. In this challenge, teams compete to integrate Colorado’s public data into market-relevant and comprehensive applications as well as analytics that provide useful tools and insights for business decision-makers in Colorado.

The Business Solutions Challenge contains two competition tracks – the Business Products Track and the Business Analytics Track. In both tracks, teams are encouraged to take deep dives into data and develop market-relevant applications and tools.  The Business Solutions Challenge Day is scheduled for March 6, while the Final Competition & Data Summit will be held on May 27.  To register, or for more information, please visit www.gocode.colorado.gov.   

This latest Go Colorado challenge follows the Business Opportunities Challenge, which was held last fall and challenged teams to identify business opportunities, problems, and issues that could be helped through the use of public data to provide solutions for businesses in Colorado. A total of 16 teams from across Colorado competed in the 2020 Business Opportunities Challenge. The winning teams pitched their business opportunities for utilization in various fields such as education, water management, and workforce relocation.  The first set of 10 winners were announced last month.

"It was my honor and privilege to be a judge for the 2020 Go Code Colorado Competition.  I was blown away by the thoughtfulness and hard work of all the entrants. I can say with the utmost confidence that Colorado will become a better place to live and work as a result of this competition!” Said Matt Melnicoff, Innovation Strategy Manager for PepsiCo.

The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office continues to publish new business-relevant data in an easy to use format on the Colorado Information Marketplace (data.colorado.gov). To date, the office's Business Intelligence Center has published over 300 data assets.