Think Big, appy thoughts at Campus Party 2012

This year’s Campus Party EU was the world’s biggest festival for digital technology to date. Among the 10,000 attendees at Berlin’s former Tempelhof airport were 50 young people from Think Big, Telefónica’s European youth programme, eager to turn their creative ideas into apps.

Talented young minds from Germany, the UK, Ireland and the Czech Republic submitted their ideas in the hope of gaining a spot on the two day workshop, in which Jon Maddog Hall – one of the masterminds behind the international Open Source Initiative, gave valuable tips and coaching.

Those who won a spot in the workshop gained some valuable insight into app building by creating a prototype of their app idea, which they then presented to a panel of judges.

The winner – an app created by three English girls to help students swap clothes, books or bicycles, or donate them to local charities – will be professionally produced by Telefónica.

Other ideas ranged from a GigFinder personalised event planner to an app for social projects in the neighbourhood.

The jury boasted some of Europe’s leading tech and business minds – Telefónica Germany’s Marketing Director Peter Rampling, Sozialhelden founder Raul Krauthausen, start-up consultancy SecondMuse’s co-founder Ruha Reyhani, AndroidPIT.de’s editor-in-chief Andreas Seager and Jan Bergner, board member of Youth Bank e.V. which supports social youth projects.

For more information about Think Big in the UK, head to the website HERE.