Fishackathon evolves— from hacking to innovating
But still importantly about global collaboration to tackle global seafood sustainability
The Fishackathon has quite a history. The last one involved more than 3,500 participants in over 30 countries and 40+ cities. Fishackathon inspires the creation of digital solutions to address sustainable fisheries challenges.
Eachmile, together with organisers Padang & Co., is very proud to be supporting the Fishackathon 2022. Members of the Eachmile team, past and present, were involved in previous Fishackathons as experts and judges etc. In 2016, some team members were attending the Our Ocean conference in Washington DC and we visited the Office of Global Partnerships in the Harry Truman Building of the US State Department. Whilst there we met the Fishackathon team and asked what would happen if Donald Trump were to win the election — the answer was simple and ominous — “this would all go”.
The election came, there was a dignified transfer of power, and then, along with anything mentioning climate change or sustainability, including our partnership on mFish, the Fishackathon was archived. We made a promise then that if we could, we would help to keep it alive.
The Fishackathon was able to continue till 2018 where it was held in over 40 cities in more than 30 countries. Later, in that same year, we were assigned the rights to run and keep the Fishackathon going. Although we tried to run one in 2019 we decided to wait till 2020 and were planning an event in March of that year — the month the World Health Organization declared the world had entered a global pandemic.
With the development of vaccines, their production, and rollout, together with the successful transition to virtual events, we finally decided to re-launch in December 2021 and announce the winners in March 2022. On a personal note, I am very happy right now being able to have written that last sentence. I am sitting on a plane for the first time in over a year and a half, currently flying past a lake called “Lake Disappointment” in Western Australia. I hope that is an omen for us all, especially all those who have suffered and continue to suffer during this pandemic as it has been and is much worse than just a disappointment for so many. In that, we hope this Fishackathon is as special to all those involved, those that participate and support it, as it is to us.
Overfishing and other serious problems harm marine environments and can devastate already-struggling, small-scale fishing marketplaces and communities, most of them in developing countries. Protections exist, but actual enforcement faces major obstacles. To combat this, Fishackathon brings together thousands of concerned designers, developers, and subject matter experts to build practical tech solutions to endemic problems defined by the world’s most respected fisheries experts.
Innovation can’t be hacked
One thing we wanted to do was to examine how Fishackathons of the future could be ran. How could we improve them and make them more relevant to more people in a more virtual world? The Fishackathons of the past brought coders and developers together for a weekend. Participants learned about the challenges facing our oceans, new friendships were made, many great ideas were born, code was written, and demonstration applications were built. However, after the events most participants went on their way, and the challenge statements they addressed in 2014 to 2018 are very much applicable today. So we believe it was time for a not only a reboot but also an upgrade in approach.
Hackathons bring coders and developers together to hack solutions to solve challenges. However, innovation is an iterative process that takes time and resources, and, to be impactful, innovations need proof-of-concept and they need to scale.
Startups participate in Challenges to show how their solution addresses a particular challenge. To evolve their solution, they need access to coders, developers and partners. So we decided it was time to meld the two approaches into the one event and provide the context, the resources, the partners and the platforms to form a Blue Innovation Ecosystem from which the Fishackathon would be the annual feeder event.
This way we could help individuals form teams, create a startup, join startups, and engage with the corporates, NGOs, IHLs, and government agencies to help proof out the concepts and scale the solutions.
Our objectives are:
To raise awareness of the challenges facing our oceans globally and the stakeholders involved
To source for impactful and actionable solutions for the sustainable and responsible use of ocean resources
To partner with leading industry stakeholder companies, governments, and organizations to pilot and scale solutions
Want to get involved — either as a sponsor, ecosystem partner or solution hacker? Head to the website at https://fishackathon.co/ and register.
