Three's our crowd
On the 22nd of February 2014, about 100 people descended on Central Hall for our third event – #hacksoton 3. What started as a few guys hanging out in the Etch UK office, grew to a large gathering last November and has now established itself as an event to be reckoned with, and we had a great time introducing the #hacksoton experience to new people and catching up with old faces. I hope you did too.
#hacksoton, for me, is always about surprise – Surprise when you lot all actually turn up, surprise when I walk the room and see the diversity of our guests, surprise at the quality of the free food, the giveaways, the response from local companies… The list goes on a bit.
This time around, the biggest surprise came from you. The creativity, talent, variety was incredible – With drinks and snacks flowing, our latest batch of attendees really raised the bar and produced some of the best stuff I’ve seen grace our stage yet.
It really validates our ethos of having the low barriers to entry and the pressure-free environment, because the people who historically might have thought themselves not good enough to attend a traditional hackathon are always the ones I enjoy talking to most, because (without fail) they are always interesting, bursting with new ideas, and a lot more intelligent than they give themselves credit for!
I saw so much that I loved – Whether it was witnessing 3D printing or trying the Oculus Rift, or playing a real 3D maze game with a metal ball by waving an iPad around, the floor was buzzing during the day with the excitement associated with doing stuff you think is cool.
We’re always trying to one-up ourselves in one way or another, and this time we wanted to engage people in new ways, so after luring you all in early with bacon (Free breakfast was a #hacksoton first) we had our first ever #hacksoton workshop.
As the First Beanbag Selfie War began to rage on our social wall, Benjie (from hacker collective MakeSoton) was giving a few lucky folk an introduction to Coffeescript and Node.js – The feedback from this session was fantastic, so we’ll probably be looking to do more stuff like this in the future. Let us know what you’d like to see covered and we’ll try and get it organised!
After beating everyone at Starwhal and eating lunch, I was thrilled to discover that the hacks that were born in the morning were beginning to take shape. Websites which listed cool domains (I still need to buy some of those…), ways to collaboratively press Q W O and P with other people, and a DJ experience which to be honest, makes me look like a bit of a dick.
Me, channelling my inner David Guetta
“Wow, this burrito is delicious, but it is filling.”
– Ron Burgandy, Anchorman (Also, our attendees)
After a delicious dinner we settled into the show and tell, which was my favourite part of the whole day. All the aforementioned stuff got a moment in the sun, and much more besides. We had WakeUpRoulette, sensors to help you stop bumping into walls, wheelchair tracking data plotted onto maps, zombie shoot ‘em ups, ways to make music out of transmitted web data and more.
That we get to witness the stuff you guys are capable of is a really special treat for us. That goes for everyone, from those who are taking their first steps into our world, to the people who live and breathe technology and dream in C++.
So here’s to you guys, and the future of #hacksoton – Welcome aboard, and make yourself comfortable. We’re going for a ride together, and I already can’t wait to find out what’s at the next stop.
PS. Thanks as ever to the great people behind what we do: Central Hall, Central Coffee, Etch, Moov2, Benefex, Peer1, Twilio, Bloc, UX Media, Benjie and Jem Gillam, Stu Lanham, Lilian Tula, Simon Johnson, Mexigo and anyone I’m forgetting. We couldn’t have done it without you!
- Adam