It was announced in Jeddah today that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was registered in the Guinness World Records after the Hackathon of Hajj being held by the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones, broke the record as the largest number of participants in the world by recording 2,950 participants. On behalf of organizers and participants in the Hackathon, Advisor at the Royal Court and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones Saud bin Abdullah Al-Qahtani extended his thanks and appreciation to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince, Vice President of the Council of Ministers, and Minister of Defense for the great support for Saudi youth in all fields, which was the main reason for this achievement. He said, ''The Kingdom's entry into the World Records through the Hackathon of Hajj confirms the aspirations of the Saudi youth for their country to be the gateway to technology in the region, pointing out that this is in line with the Kingdom's Vision 2030, as an ambitious vision that takes the Kingdom to a quantum leap in all aspects of life. The entry of Hackathon of Hajj in the Guinness World Records was announced at 7:00 am on Thursday, whereas Advisor at the Royal Court and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones Saud bin Abdullah Al-Qahtani, received the Guinness Records Certificate from the Guinness World Records' Arbitrator Ahmed Jabr, after officially announcing the Hackathon's registering 2950 participants as the highest number of participations in the world, breaking the previous record of 2,577 participants registered by India since 2012. The Kingdom's entry into the Guinness World Records is a great success for the first session of the "Hackathon of Hajj", which has attracted male and female developers from different countries, including the Kingdom, GCC countries and the world, as Google supported the event and held several training workshops for participants. It is worth mentioning that the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones has allocated rewards and funds for participants' projects amounting to SR 2 million, in order to transform participants' ideas into projects, where the reward will be divided into three parts, and the first winner will receive SR 1 million, the second SR 500,000, and the third SR 350,000, while SR150,000 will be a reward for excellence. The Competition in the Hackathon of Hajj includes the sectors covering the Hajj season, its services and challenges, including food and beverages, public health, financial solutions, transportation, crowd management, traffic control, travel and accommodation arrangements, waste management, housing and communication solutions.
