Just Eat, the leading online takeaway food service which is setting up a specialist technology centre in Bristol, is inviting the city’s tech community to its first hackathon tomorrow.
Using the Just Eat api – a set of programming instructions and standards for accessing web-based software applications – and any other available data, the region’s tech talent will be able to explore innovative approaches aimed at improving the service Just Eat offers its millions of customers and more than 36,000 takeaway partner restaurants worldwide. 
Taking place from 8am to 7pm at Just Eat’s Innovation Hub at the Engine Shed, Temple Meads, attendees will join current employees and will be given free rein to build anything from new app functions to innovative digital marketing campaigns.
Previous Hackathon ideas since integrated into Just Eat’s operations include the development of NFC (near-field communication) enabled posters – recently rolled out across the company’s UK partner restaurants – and OpenRastaSwagger, a tool enabling the expression of public meta-data over an api, which Just Eat has made available to the wider developer community.
Just Eat chief technology officer Carlos Morgado said: “Over the past 12 months Just Eat’s technology team has been working hard to deliver everything from innovative mobile apps to new electronic point of sale technology for our restaurant partners to ensure we remain the number one takeaway service.
“The regular hackathons we’ve been running at our central London offices are essential to this innovation process enabling us to learn from those both inside and outside the company. Now, with our new technology innovation hub in Bristol, we can access the brilliant pool of tech talent based throughout the South West. I’m looking forward to seeing the results from the day.”
Joe McGeehan, chair of Invest Bristol & Bath (IBB), the inward investment agency for the region, which has supported Just Eat in setting up its Bristol hub, said: “It is great to have Just Eat in the region, a place which is all about collaborative spirit.
“This hackathon offers talented technologists a unique opportunity to engage with a major innovation-led business that is looking to recruit and grow its technology hub here. It promises to be a lively event where ideas and expertise are shared, relationships are forged and plenty of fun is had by all.”
