“Port-A-Thon” is now a popular term among Asia Pacific developers. Developers have heard good stuff about BlackBerry GotGame virtual Port-a-thon in November, participated in the All-Aboard Port-a-thon on December, and then went nuts about the BlackBerry Got Game Port-A-Thon LIVE series that was held in eight cities in Asia Pacific.

When this weekend’s Port-A-Thons were announced, we got a really enthusiastic responses from APAC BlackBerry developer communities. They want to make sure quality apps will be ported, and a lot of them volunteered to host offline events across Asia to support developers to successfully port their apps. RIM Developer Evangelists, experienced BlackBerry developers and our BlackBerry Dev Group leaders will all be onsite all over Asia to support developers.

For the lucky developers who live in the below cities, be sure to pop by and get porting with us in the flesh!

Note: all date and times stated are based on local cities’ timezone.

China

Beijing – Pre Port-a-Thon tech seminar

(Organized by Iberry dev group)

Date/Time: January 11, 6:00PM to 9:00PM

Location: Monica’s café (北京市朝阳区大望路万达广场4号楼806)

Registration and more details: http://bit.ly/13j6bRw

Beijing – Android to BlackBerry Port-a-Thon Tech Seminar

(In collaboration with Iberry dev group)

Date/Time: 12^th 10:00AM to 1:00PM

Location: Monica’s café (北京市朝阳区大望路万达广场4号楼806)

Registration and more details: http://bit.ly/13j6bRw

Shanghai – Android to BlackBerry Port-a-Thon tech seminar

(organized by CNBBDevGroup, China)

Date/Time: January 12, 10:00AM to 1:00PM

Location: 上海市杨浦区淞沪路270号创智天地广场(KIC)3号楼B1层InnoSpace

Registration and more details: http://bit.ly/13j5kjB

India

Kochi, Kerala – Android Port-A-Thon for BlackBerry 10 Tech Support

(organized by Rubus Labs at Start-up Village)

Date/Time: January 12, 09:30AM onwards

Location: Rubus Labs, Startup Village, Kinfra High Tech Park, Kalamassery, Kochi-683503, Kerala

Enathur Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu – Android Port-A-Thon for BlackBerry 10 Tech Support

(organized by SCSVMV BlackBerry Developer Group)

Date/Time: January 12, 09:30AM onwards

Location: SCSVMV University, Dept. of CSE, SCSVMV University, Enathur Kanchipuram-631561,

Indonesia

Jakarta – BlackBerry 10 Android Port-a-Thon live Support

(In collaboration with ID Android and BBDevID)

Date/time: January 12, 10.00AM to 8.00PM

Location: Mercantile Athletic Club, Penthouse Floor (18th floor), World Trade Center 1, Jl. Jenderal Sudirman Kav. 31 Jakarta 12920

Registration and more details: http://bit.ly/13iJblF

Philippines

Manila – PinoyBBDev Port-a-thon Meetup

(organized by PinoyBBDev, in conjunction with Globe, Android and Web Communities)

Date/Time: January 12, 8:00AM to 6:00PM

Location: Globe Valero, Makati City

Registration and more details: http://bit.ly/13iLIvX

Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh – BlackBerry 10 Portathon Live Support Session

(organized by BlackBerry Developer Group – Vietnam)

Date/Time: January 11 & 12, 9:00AM to 8:00PM

Location: Cafe Dâu: 1E Nguyễn Văn Thủ, F. Dakao, Quận 1, T/P HCM.

More details: http://bit.ly/13iMMA9

Singapore

BlackBerry 10 Porting Clinic in Singapore

(In collaboration with PlugFest organizers)

Date/Time: January 12, 10:00AM to 6:00PM

Location: “Green Room” in Plug-in@BLK71

More details: http://bit.ly/VTUbzw

Be a part of the first simultaneous Asia-Pacific-wide BlackBerry® hackathon! Hack your way through 40 hours of non-stop coding. From ideation to creation, together with our experts, make it all app-en to win cash, devices, trips and more. Indulge on an endless supply of food, drinks, activities and giveaways. Go head-to-head in ten major cities and advance to BlackBerry Jam Asia 2012 to represent your team and country. Whether you are an experienced or aspiring developer, designer or an entrepreneur, you can bring your skills and ideas to turn your ideas into reality. It’s going to be a blast!

Organised by ten Developer Groups & Communities in Asia Pacific, each 40-hour JamHack event will provide an opportunity for four-member teams of developers, designers, marketeers, entrepreneurs to work on an awesome app for BlackBerry 10.  To ensure that each team is properly equipped for the challenge, RIM is providing round-the-clock Global Technical Helpdesk support, by the tech experts from Developer Relations Asia Pacific team onsite, as well as platform experts streaming live from North America.

Don’t miss the great opportunity to hack with the subject-matter experts and fellow brilliant minds, across continents! On each weekend, there will be five simultaneous JamHack events happening:

Jammin’ on Oct 12-14 (5-city simultaneous Hacks):

• India – Delhi (by @skjsaurabh)
• India – Bangalore (by Rubus Labs DevGroup)
• Singapore (by @BBDevSG)
• Malaysia – Kuala Lumpur (by @BBMYCoders)
• Philippines – Manila (by @PinoyBBDev)

Jammin’ on Oct 19-21 (5-city simultaneous Hacks):

• Indonesia – Jakarta (by @BBDevID)
• Vietnam – Ho Chi Minh City (by @Louis_Keeper)
• Thailand – Bangkok (by @BBDevThailand)
• China – Shanghai (@immmooo)
• Australia – Melbourne (@csaunders_ca)

Over each of the weekend events, RIM will also be sharing market insights tailored to the respective cities so developers can develop market-relevant applications. Beyond that, the two days will also include sharing sessions aptly named as JamBytes. During these sessions, participants will have the chance to understand in-depth developmental tips and tricks on BlackBerry 10 platform, how to enhance their BlackBerry 10 applications, as well as go to market strategies for their new apps.

The ten winning teams from the JamHack events will receive an all-expense paid trip to BlackBerry Jam Asia, where you will represent your city and compete at the Asia-Pacific Finals.

Final winning team of the “Asia-Pacific Finals” will win the grand prize of:

• Cash Prize of US$10,000
• BlackBerry App World™ marketing for 2 months for BlackBerry 10 launch in Asia, Middle East and Africa (where applicable) & one  week marketing in North America, Latin America and Europe (where applicable)
• App marketing with launch campaign of BlackBerry 10 in market
• Dedicated technical & Business Consultancy for up to third month after launch of BlackBerry 10 in team’s market

Don’t hesitate! Sign up or find out more at: www.blackberryjamhack.com!

The BlackBerry® Developer Relations team gathered from all corners of the globe as the BlackBerry® 10 Jam World Tour hit Asia! It made me feel proud to have the opportunity to host the Jam events and be a part of such a diverse and dynamic team. Every area of the business showed up in full strength to demonstrate our relentless support for our developers.

Our BlackBerry 10 Jam journey started in India. We had worked hard to assemble a team of superstars from across the globe, yet the distances we traveled seemed nothing compared to the expanse our Indian developers covered just to get into our Jams in Bangalore and Delhi. Some came from neighboring cities, others flew in from different parts of the country, and others traveled by overnight train from hundreds of miles away. Before I could even express my gratitude for their perseverance, all I received in return was a heartfelt appreciation for bringing BlackBerry 10 Jam to India. It was simply heartwarming.

I officially kicked things off with a short welcome to a fully packed crowd who expressed their excitement through cheers, especially when they realized that they were part of the first Jams in Asia! After the waves of cheers settled, I welcomed Annie Mathews, Head of Alliances for India. Annie is well-known amongst the Indian developer community for her efforts within the content ecosystem. She re-affirmed RIM’s commitment to India, but especially highlighted the important contribution of thousands of Indian developers that have built and will continue to build applications for not just the local market, but the entire globe!

Alec Saunders then took the stage after an amazing number, and the energy in the room went nuclear! The echoes of hoots and cheers and non-stop applause during Alec’s keynote was simply deafening. It felt like I was at a political rally!

Next up was Krishnadeep Baruah, RIM India’s Head of Marketing, who took the devs through the BlackBerry 10 UX. To have RIM India’s most senior employee take the stage impressed many in the crowd. Krishnadeep was omeone who had witnessed RIM’s birth in India since 2007 and been a part of every BlackBerry device launch, as well as the various marketing campaigns. Despite being a veteran, he could barely contain his excitement for BlackBerry 10, and when he shared the new experiences and possibilities for developers, it was genuinely felt by everyone present.

Things switched into technical gear at this point with Alan Wong giving the audience a taste of the BlackBerry 10 architecture. It wasn’t just talk, as Alan showcased some interesting demos and samples including from various local developers like Divum, Indience, Spice Labs, DbyDx, who had the early opportunity to build their latest apps and games on the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha.

The final part of the keynote was all about the dollars and cents. This session on monetization opportunities was led by Krishna Tamireddy, who heads the BlackBerry App World™ Content Marketing team for APAC. The insights, trends and tactics he shared were very well received by the audience and came as a pleasant surprise to many who had been struggling to monetize on mobile platforms.

The lightning pitches saw an incredible response.  The winner by people’s choice was Infinite Appz who showcased an new version of their very popular Diary Pro App for BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablets.

The afternoon tracks saw the crowd disperse into Web and Native to hear from our platform experts. On Native, we had Ramprasad Madhavan who flew in from Toronto to speak to devs for the first time in his hometown of Bangalore. On Web, AT&T hackathon winner Demian Borba came all the way from Brazil backed by our very own >Chris Saunders from Australia.

I had a chance to connect with many of the attendees. One of them was Chris Martin, a 14-year-old who had submitted an app and won a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet through our free BlackBerry PlayBook tablet offer. Being underage, he had managed to convince both his parents to accompany him for the Jam in Bangalore, and even the media and bloggers had a fun time finding out what motivated him to build apps for BlackBerry! It seems to me that India has this tendency to produce quite a few of such young prodigies. Delhi confirmed this notion: Raghav Sood, one of our BBM hackathon winners from last January, brought his dad along as well. In this case Raghav was not just an attendee for the Jam, but had managed to hack up a BlackBerry 10 Cascades™ app! He put several folks (like me) to shame when he demoed his Twitter® client with Alan on stage. The best part: he had only built it in the past 48 hours and had no prior knowledge of QML!

Overall, an excellent start to the tour that gave the entire BlackBerry 10 Jam World Tour team the confidence to take on the rest of Asia. Thank you India! Until next time, keep building!

The team goes on to Jakarta and Sydney next.