Last week saw an array of tech experts, start-up investors, budding entrepreneurs, and anyone with an interest in the digital world descend upon Yerevan for the annual Digitech expo, a three-day high-tech, high-tempo event showcasing some of the world’s biggest ICT innovations.
Keen not to miss out on such a concentration of bright young minds, Kolba Lab, UNDP in Armenia’s innovation unit, teamed up with the good folk at #createtogether and PicsArt to hold a 15-hour hackathon — a marathon coding event bringing together like-minded hackers and non-hackers alike — intended to transform ideas into reality via mobile and web apps, services and products!
The hackathon format was actually established back in the 1980s, before most of our hackers were even born — even before the birth of the Internet (some of our younger readers may be astounded to learn that such a time existed!) Back then the basic premise of a hackathon was to save time. By bringing together techies to compartmentalise the workload required for different parts of code, a job that would ordinarily take two or three months could be done in a fraction of that time.
Today hackathons are everywhere, as a simple search through Medium demonstrates. They’re no longer simply a useful format for bringing life to a digital application in a short space of time, they’ve become a platform for a range of individuals to share ideas, build partnerships, network, receive feedback, and more. For those like us in the development business, this concentration of citizen agency, creativity, and intellectual and skills-based interconnectivity is like gold dust.
Unsurprisingly, a good hackathon should mimic the pace of a marathon (not a sprint!) Our event kicked of at the unusual time of one o’clock in the morning, continuing for 15 hours before culminating in a pitching and awards session.
Here’s a step-by-step snapshot:
1am: Introductions. Meet and greet. Participants find themselves a new home for the upcoming colder, harsher hours.
4am: Hackers are getting down and dirty in their projects. Enthusiasm is in high supply. Creativity abounds.
7am: With the first sign of sleep deprivation on display, some early morning Yoga is called for to kickstart our eager young minds.
10am: Reinforcements are brought out in the form of Red bull and Pizza. One participant tells us “I’m tired, but I’m too excited to sleep!”
12 noon: Participants succumb… Sleep ensues.
4pm: Participants shake off their tiredness and, having perfected their prototypes, head before the judges for an intensive pitching session.
Many, many hours later the winners are declared (though we’re all winners really, aren’t we?). Everybody poses for one last sleep-deprived group picture, before heading home for some well-deserved rest…
