Develothon

Develothon
Company type	Skill-building event
Industry	Information technology, Software development
Founded	2010
Founder	Himanshu Goyal and IBM colleagues
Area served	India
Products	Technical training sessions, skill marathons, online workshops, eBooks, SkillKits, product trials
Parent	IBM

Adapted from the English Wikipedia article Develothon, available under CC BY-SA 4.0Updated 9 August 2025

Develothon represents an intensive skill-building event tailored for software developers across India, aimed at enhancing proficiency in cutting-edge technologies. Its name is derived from a blend of 'developerWorks' and 'Marathon'.

Concept

The 2010 edition of Develothon was executed as a nationwide roadshow connected to the IBM developerWorks community, concentrating on themes associated with IBM's Smarter Planet vision. This initiative encompassed 40 Unconference sessions and technical presentations held in 31 cities, featuring 75 speakers who delivered talks chosen by participants. Attendees had the opportunity to vote for the Top Speaker Trophy, recognizing excellence in presentation. The program was devised by Himanshu Goyal alongside his IBM colleagues, including Kunal Dureja, Bharti Muthu, Prasanna Kumar, Apra Sahey, Dhirender Nirwani, Sarvanan Sekar, P Dasgupta, Anil Menon, Malathi Srinivasan, and Pradeep Nair.

In major metropolitan locations, the sessions addressed all aspects of the Smarter Planet framework with adaptable schedules. Conversely, in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, the emphasis was placed on emerging fields such as Cloud Computing and Web 2.0. The initiative highlighted principal IBM Software Group solutions like Rational, Information Management, WebSphere, Lotus, and Tivoli, aligning with IBM’s Smarter Planet pillars: Dynamic Infrastructure, Smart Work, New Intelligence, and Smarter Products, customized to meet regional market demands.

Limca Book of Records

Develothon earned recognition from the Limca Book of Records in the Learning category for orchestrating a skill marathon that included 40 live technical briefings conducted across 31 cities. The event followed a relay-style format where teams handed over responsibilities sequentially to maintain momentum throughout the 40-day span.

IBM developerWorks

Since its inception in 1999, IBM’s developerWorks has served as a vital resource for IT professionals by providing technical documentation, sample code, and discussion forums. It assists software practitioners in keeping pace with open standards, enhancing their expertise, troubleshooting challenges, and engaging with peers.

The platform also features an online network called My developerWorks, which facilitates connections among users sharing common technical interests.

The Develothon initiative was integrated with developerWorks to offer both virtual and in-person educational materials to developers and academic institutions. Resources provided included product trials, technology eKits, downloadable or cloud-hosted sandboxes, online briefings, free eBooks such as Getting Started with DB2 Express-C, training modules called SkillKits, the Java Development Kit (JDK), and online workshops.

By 2009, these programs had successfully trained more than 18,000 IT professionals throughout India.

Develothon 2010 Schedule

Commencing on 22 March in Mumbai, this initiative spanned over 4,598 kilometers, reaching 12 cities across 11 states and drawing participation from more than 5,000 individuals. The event concluded back in Mumbai on 30 April.

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Webathon 2010

Transitioning to a digital platform, Webathon 2010 was a ten-day online Skill Marathon conducted from October 19 through November 1, 2010. Delivered entirely via the Internet, this program featured daily virtual sessions covering ten essential software and emerging technology domains, aimed at professionals looking to upgrade their technical skills.

Date	Location	City
22 March 2010	Sahara Star	Mumbai
22 March 2010	Sinhgad Institute of Technology	Lonavala
23 March 2010	O Hotel	Pune
23 March 2010	Vishwakarma Institute of Technology	Pune
25 March 2010	Gogte Institute of Technology	Belgaum
26 March 2010	Hotel Fidalgo	Goa
27 March 2010	BV Bhoomaraddi College of Engineering & Technology	Hubli
29 March 2010	NMAM Institute of Technology	Mangalore
30 March 2010	Hotel Royal Orchid	Bangalore
30 March 2010	MS Ramaiah Institute of Technology	Bangalore
31 March 2010	National Institute of Engineering	Mysore
1 April 2010	Dayanand Sagar College of Engineering	Bangalore
5 April 2010	Le Meridien	Chennai
5 April 2010	RMK Engineering College	Chennai
6 April 2010	Sri Venkateswara College	Chittoor
6 April 2010	Sri Vidyaniketan Engineering College	Tirupati
7 April 2010	Vignan University	Guntur
8 April 2010	KL University	Vijayawada
9 April 2010	Fortune Select Manohar	Hyderabad
9 April 2010	Padmasri BV Raju Institute of Technology	Hyderabad

1 November 2010

Date	Session Topic
19 October 2010	'Agile Development with Jazz & Rational Team Concert'
20 October 2010	'Business Performance Management using IBM Cognos'
21 October 2010	'Developing Applications in the Cloud using WebSphere Application Server'
22 October 2010	'Creating next generation Web 2.0 applications in Lotus'
25 October 2010	'Achieving Greater Confidence and Enhanced Business Performance through Software Quality'
26 October 2010	'Integrated Service Management'
27 October 2010	'Industry Solutions from IBM'
28 October 2010	'Harnessing the Power of Web 2.0 with WebSphere Portal'
29 October 2010	'Model Driven Systems Development using Rhapsody'
'The Power of IBM DB2'

External links