Apps4Bens: The Future of Ben's Chili Bowl

During the winter of 2010, Applicist approached his client Nizam Ali, owner of Ben’s Chili Bowl with a proposition. “What if we were to have a contest where as App developers created an iPhone App for Ben’s Chili Bowl?” Nizam, known to be a man of pragmantic tendencies immediately answered, “Do you think we can find enough developers to participate in the contest…if so what would the prize be?” . After a nday or two of brainstrorming, we finally reached an agreement: They get their picture up on the wall!

That was the beginning of a super cool contest where as app developers from all over DMV participated in what has known to become the “Apps4Bens” contest. DJ Saul of iStrategy Labs was a major contributor in ideation and project management, as was Peter Erickson of Disruptathon. Contestants were given 3 months to develop an app for Ben’s with the winner being crowned the Head App Developers in Charge. Paul Murphy of 3Advance LLC was honored to become the first and only HADinCharge, creating an app that allowed for patrons to upload an image of themselves in Ben’s onto a wide screen LCD screen. So far, we have over 4000 images of customers all enjoying their food at one of Washington DC’s most famous restaurants!

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Apps4Bens Case Study

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