The Evolution of HackCamp
Learn about the complete history of HackCamp, from how it started to what you can expect in 2020.
Perhaps you hadn’t noticed, or maybe, just maybe, the idea and the origin of HackCamp has been living rent-free in your brain ever since we launched. If that’s the case, you’re in luck because I’m here to talk about the evolution of HackCamp. But wait, before we move on, let’s talk about the elephant in the room.
Where did UBC Local Hack Day go?
If you were born in or before 2001, you most likely remember HackCamp as UBC Local Hack Day, and if you attended last year, you probably have a sticker of our beloved beaver mascot whom we call Nugget (don’t ask why).
In essence, we are still the same beginner-friendly hackathon you know and love. Remember when Slack rebranded, and everyone went bonkers? Yeah, but did their functionality change at all? No, and I digress. With 2020 forcing everyone to relocate to their homes worldwide, we decided to leave behind “Local” Hack Day and bring you all to the greater outdoors virtually to HackCamp. While it’s unfortunate we won’t see our lovely community in person, the entire team is working as hard as possible to make this online hacking experience as rich and rewarding as it can be. Plus, I don’t know about you, but I’ve always wanted to be one of those kids attending camp, telling stories by the fire, roasting marshmallows, and earning badges.
Now, let’s finally begin our trip down memory lane, to when this hackathon was only atomic dust floating in the air, ready to be manifested in subsequent years to what would become home to the largest Local Hack Day in North America.
It all started in 2016 with two ambitious friends, Kristen Kwong and Charmaine Lee, in the basement of the UBC CS building.
Kristen and Charmaine shared a mutual desire to promote diversity, inclusivity, and accessibility within their local tech community. With that in mind, and after a short 1.5 months of planning, they could bring the first Local Hack Day to UBC under the club UBC Hacks.
Through UBC Local Hack Day, Kristen and Charmaine saw their vision flourish. They were able to approach promoting diversity, inclusivity, and accessibility in two main ways: 1) by bringing students together to tackle problems in these sectors, and 2) by creating a beginner-friendly hackathon that would be approachable for all students in the local community in all disciplines, experience levels, and backgrounds. They continued to organize UBC Local Hack Day for two years, learning and improving through each incremental step. If you want to learn more about the fruition of Local Hack Day, check out Kristen and Charmaine’s blog post!
You may be more familiar with the next part of the story (perhaps from reading this blog post). Kristen and Charmaine, hoping to turn their vision into something greater than themselves, decided to merge their team, UBC Hacks, with the team behind nwHacks, to become what you know today, nwPlus (we love a full-circle moment).
In 2018, nwPlus, with over 350+ attendees, was able to host the largest Local Hack Day in North America (learn more).
Some quick STATS:
763 registered with Major League Hacking for UBC Local Hack Day 2018 👌
363 students from Vancouver checked-in after the term’s last day of classes 🙏
50 hackers chose to put jam on their croissants 🥐
50 teams of hackers submitted a project 👩💻 👨💻
40 teams of hackers demoed to the crowd ✨
23 organizers from the nwPlus team 🌟
21 sponsors and in-kind partners 💖
13 Slack contests 🎉
1 amazing day of hacking, food, and innovation 🔥
The next year, in 2019, it was a bittersweet moment as we had to say goodbye to the founders.
More QUICK STATS:
743 registered with Major League Hacking 👌
411 checked-in to the event — our biggest Local Hack Day event to date 🎉
55 teams of hackers submitted a project to Devpost 👩💻 👨💻
40 organizers from the nwPlus team 🌟
12 sponsors and in-kind partners 💖
$75 donated to charity 👫
27 Slack contests 🎉
1 amazing day of hacking, food, and innovation 🔥
And that’s a wrap to the evolution of what is now HackCamp. What can you look forward to this year, you ask? This year, HackCamp will be a weekend-long hackathon bootcamp designed for beginners and tech lovers worldwide on December 5–6th. There will be a focus on learning and workshops on the first day and building and hacking on the second day.
2020 has been a wild ride already, so who knows what the future holds. However, I’m positively sure about one thing, HackCamp 2020 would look a lot better with you as an attendee 😉. See you soon!
If you’ve come this far into the article, it is a sign telling you that you should register for HackCamp 2020.
Words by Victoria Kim, Content Writer 2020/2021
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Thanks to Rebecca Xie!
