Welcoming Team Blokur back in our new office for an Idea Hack
After more than a year we were delighted to welcome Team Blokur back!
A lot has changed since the start of the pandemic, from having multiple different work spaces to welcoming new team members, doubling our overall team size. We were therefore delighted to be able to welcome back the Blokur Team for an official office warming party and idea hack in our brand new office!
Tasked with integrating Blokur’s sub-graph-matching technology & songs data into a new domain or product, the teams had to come up with prototypes & business models in a competition to win the coveted prize of concert vouchers!
Blokur members were split into four teams, Team A, Team B, Team C and Team D. Two of the teams were tasked with finding a use for Blokur’s sub-graph matching system outside of the music domain, while the other two teams had to find a way of incorporating the songs data in Blokur’s database of 160m+ recordings and 30m+ compositions into a new consumer product.
The day was divided into segments, starting with an initial brainstorming session where whiteboards quickly became covered top-to-bottom with sticky notes full of ideas. Then in the second stage, the ideas quickly began evolving as the teams started answering the essential questions which form an integral part of a business model. The creativity continued into the prototype stage, with teams building or making prototypes using whatever was available to them in just an hour or two, before heading into the final stage of pitching their new business to the whole of Blokur.
It’s fair to say that Team Blokur are very creative, based on the final ideas which were pitched! The final ideas ranged from a mobile game where you choose your path in the music industry drawing on data from Blokur’s music copyright database, to a pharmaceutical app which uses Blokur’s graph matching to create a comprehensive guide on the side effects of using multiple medications together, to an app that helps the police fight crime.
As you can see there was a wide range of ideas with plenty of creativity behind them, but it was Team B’s idea which took home the prize! The winning idea was Chord, a dating app which matches you up with potential partners based on your taste in music and favourite songs (using Blokur’s database of course).
The pitch gained a huge round of applause for their highly creative way of ending their pitch;
‘Find your…
Popmate
Rockmate,
Jazzmate,
Soulmate.’
Alongside the creativity of the set task, team Blokur were all treated to ice cream from Ohyi’s and drinks and nibbles throughout the day, alongside a carefully curated playlist which referenced some favourite moments of the Records of the Day we have listened to over the past year and a bit.
Hopefully this marks a positive transition of normality, with team members being able to return and work in the office to break up the day-to-day of remote work.
Interested in Blokur’s services? Check out our Resources Page for more details
