Introducing Hackathons New Zealand
Kia ora,
We’re incredibly excited to introduce Hackathons New Zealand — a grassroots initiative supporting New Zealand hackathons, creative & innovation sprints and game jams while bringing together a community of students, professionals, curious newcomers, organisers and organisations.
Inspired by our local New Zealand hackathons and sprint events as well as fantastic organisations global organisations such as Hackathons Australia and Major Hacking League, we wanted to create this initiative to give back to the local New Zealand tech community.
What do we at Hackathons New Zealand aim to do?
To bring more awareness, visibility and support to our local events
We often hear the phrases “I didn’t know that [event name] was happening”, “What is [event name]?” or “That happened over the weekend? I wish I knew about it so.” There are so many exciting hackathons, creative & innovation sprints and game jams that happen around the country, but not all of them are heard of or get the same exposure as others. We want to help get the local community become more aware of these events, and help them gain more visibility and exposure.
Supporting and inspiring newcomers to participate
From a distance these events can be quite daunting to those who have never participated in one before — in fact, we were in this position when we started! It’s hard to know what to expect from a small description about the event or even just a few photos. We want to help newcomers feel excited and welcome to take part in their first event.
Bridge the gap between students and these events
Many students hesitate to join and participant in these events. To students, industry professionals can be intimidating to approach and interact within a new environment. While many are welcome to students, at a glance, can still give off the vibe that hackathons and sprints are for industry only.
For the two of us, hackathons and innovation sprints played in giving us a headstart on our careers, giving us the knowledge and skills that we have today. We want to help students feel inspired and encouraged to sign up and participate in future events. We want to help events and organisers reduce the disconnect on students and these events.
Encouraging people of different skill sets and skill levels that there is a place for them
A common barrier that potential participants come across when thinking about signing up for an event is “I don’t think this event is for me”. Maybe they‘re still new to developing, unconfident of their skills, have completely a different skillset or a different background (e.g design, business, marketing, ideators, hustlers etc.). The ‘hack’ in hackathons shouldn’t scare off those who don’t identify themselves as ‘experienced developers’. It’s often the combination of participants with varying skill sets and levels of experience that make the strongest of teams. These events provide a great opportunity to collaborate with people from all backgrounds. We want to encourage people from all skill levels and a variety of skill sets to be connecting together.
Empowering people of diversity
We are lucky to live in a country that values diversity, inclusion and culture and it is exciting to see other events and organisations support this. We want to jump on this ship to help support and encourage people from all backgrounds to feel welcome to these events.
Help organisations and events provide an engaging participant experience
One of the most valuable things that can come out of hackathon or sprint for a participant is their experience before, during and after the event. While a good experience can leave a participant excited and empowered to participate in more, one bad experience can put them off all events entirely. How might we help organisers showcase their events to excite and appeal to their target audience? How can we help organisers connect with potential participants? Why do some participants decide to leave halfway through? How can we assure newcomers to a specific event will feel welcomed and comfortable attending?
We’re currently looking into, researching and understanding the current ecosystem for these events in New Zealand so that we may better help our local events and organisers; to understand their participants and give the best experience for their participants that they can.
Sharing inspiring stories, experiences, event project and people
Hackathons, creative & innovation sprints and game jams are fantastic experiences that often occur over a few days. Once the final day wraps up, the only memories kept are through photos, videos, blogs that not everyone may see. Participants can cherish their experiences, but those who weren’t present miss out on the opportunity to hear and see them. We’d love to use this opportunity to showcase projects created at these events and help individuals share their stories whether participating, observing or organising these events.
It’s often asked at the end of an event “What happens on the Monday after?” and there have been many fantastic ventures that have come out of these events. We want to keep supporting these initiatives as they continue their journey past the event they were created in.
What have we done so far?
Techfugees Wellington 2019 (Techfugees New Zealand)
Since we launched in mid-May, we were lucky to attend New Zealand’s first Techfugees Hackathon in Stokes Valley, Wellington. As part of the worldwide Techfugees movement empowering displaced people with technology, participants worked in teams to create solutions to help with the refugee journey and settlement and work together to build community. Those participating looked to not only create (or build upon) apps to solve real world hurdles for former refugees but also connect them to the community ensuring NZ is utilising all of its skill base.
This is the first of many hackathons for the New Zealand chapter of Techfugees and we look forward to seeing the next!
‘Intro to Hackathons’ Hackathon (Victoria University Women in Tech)
The following weekend we sponsored and covered Victoria University Women in Tech’s Intro to Hackathon event at Flux Federation. This 2-day event gave newcomers the chance to experience a Hackathon in a safe and relaxed environment. Throughout the weekend we saw participants form teams, come up with ideas and present their projects by the evening of the second day.
Startup Weekend Wellington 2019
Last weekend saw Wellington’s annual Startup Weekend event take place at Victoria University of Wellington’s business school. Startup Weekend gives participants the opportunity to find a team, create a prototypes, validate business concepts, and receive mentoring and feedback from experienced entrepreneurs. This weekend saw 80 participants from all backgrounds and 12 different teams create startups from scratch in 54 hours.
Blog posts for these events will be coming shortly!
What’s next?
After a very quiet June, hackathon season approaches with a busy 3 months ahead of us. 18 different events from Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch will be happening between July–September and we’ll be keeping up with the fantastic efforts from as many of those events.
We’re very excited to be present on site from several of these events in Wellington:
Kiwi Game Jam Wellington (July 19–21)
Summer of Tech / Biz’s Wellington Hackfests (Aug 1 — Aug 24)
And more to come when dates are confirmed!
Keep up with us!
We’ll be regularly posting on our Facebook, Facebook community, Twitter and Instagram any upcoming hackathons, creative & innovation sprints and game jams happening in New Zealand. We’ll also be posting recaps from these events and spotlighting participants, projects and more to come!
Get in touch
Whether you’re a big or small organisation, government agency, school or initiative, if you are organising or know of any upcoming hackathons, creative & innovation sprints and game jams, please let us know! We want to help get your event outs there and get potential participants excited about them.
We’d also be keen on getting in touch with anyone who has ever previously participated, mentored, organised an event (or will be). We’d love to hear your stories, experiences, insights, tips, advice and projects you’ve worked on.
Ngā mihi,
Nina Estrella and Corina Reitemeyer
The Hackathons New Zealand Team
