Do. Epic. Shit.
How we started college hackathons in the little Georgia
This is a short story of a couple of college friends who made a difference, who did something big because they loved and believed in whatever they were doing.
I’m a computer science student at Georgia Tech and I live thousands of miles away from my old friends and family. During my second year at Tech, I went to several major college hackathons in the US like MHacks, PennApps HackMIT and since my first hackathon here I knew I was gonna throw one in my little country — Georgia. The fact that I’m from the country of Georgia and now I live in the state of Georgia is often a source of confusion. But for now, whenever I say Georgia, I mean my beloved little country where I was born and I will make sure I’ll do everything to make a huge difference there, give people more opportunities to become successful and happy because Georgians are smart as hell, they just need a medium where they can show their real power.
I believe that hackathons are changing the way we live and they give people invaluable opportunities where the only enemy you have is your own creativity (or lack of it).
It was a late November morning when I was talking to my friends from Georgia on Google Hangout when we first talked about hackathons in general. I shared my hackathon experience with them and they were kinda angry they didn’t have the possibility to go to one. And there was a minute of silence. And we all shouted out loud: Let’s throw one in Georgia!
We were extremely excited and created the hackathon website right away with some basic info. We decided to create a small group or organization (later we called it uniHack) that would be a legal entity and would help us in negotiating with companies and possible sponsors. All of us were from different schools and universities so we all tried to talk to some local colleges in Tbilisi asking them to give us venue for the event and help us throw the first college hackathon in the history of Georgia. Finally, the deal was made and Caucasus School of Technology in Tbilisi, Georgia — gave us space and support although they didn’t fully understand what we were actually doing.
And then we started looking for sponsors and speakers for tech talks. We all took our responsibilities and discussed the progress every other day. We were doing it agile! : )
We were a little desperate, because we had only one month till the start of the hackathon and we had never done anything like it before. We spent hours every single day talking to companies trying to explain what the hackathon was and why it was a big thing. We gave them the opportunity to become the part of the history, because I think we created a whole new Georgia with limitless epic ideas, extremely smart kids and a bright future.
Finally, we managed to find couple of Georgian companies who really understood the real value of what we were trying to do.
I bought my ticket to Georgia. We had just one day before the hackathon to meet up and work on the details of the upcoming weekend.
And then… December 20-21-22… Sleepless and the happiest hours we’ve ever had. Lots of new friends, tons of smart high school kids and college hackers with the wierdest sense of humor, the most epic projects ever and one of the most interesting tech talks that we’ve ever listened to.
Only a few had heard of the word “hackathon” before hack@CST in Georgia. Nobody but us, a group of friends believed that Georgia was ready for this. But I believe that it is never early to change something. It is never early to make a difference. It is never early to DO. EPIC. SHIT.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not being emotional. At least I’m trying not to be. But those hours… those hours changed the way I look at things now. Now I truly believe that nothing is impossible. It’s all about being in love with your thing, no matter what it is. There are no borders, there is no limit, there’s nothing that can stop you. And there’s nothing that can stop those Georgian college hackers who really blew our mind. And I want to let the world know:
Georgian kids DID EPIC SHIT, THEY FUC*ING DID IT!
UPDATE: This post was published in January 2014, right after the first hackathon ever in Georgia — hack@CST. One year has passed since then and we grew like crazy. After only 3 months we threw another college hackathon — hack@MACS which was one of the biggest hackathons in Europe with around 500 hackers from around the country. And then..
Our 1 year anniversary was hackTBILISI — the very first international college hackathon ever in our country, region and continent. Hackers from 5 countries (Georgia, Ukraine, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia), 12 cities and 20 universities and high schools came to hack Tbilisi. We had media and press coverage on every major national television and newspaper. We had more sponsors. More hackers. More epic projects. More high school kids!
Last year no one knew about hackathons in Georgia and no one knew about Georgian hackers.
Now we are on the map and this is just the beginning.
We’re gonna take over the world.
P.S. I think you should also watch this: Calisthenics at hack@CST.
If you love our story and wanna share some hacker love hit us up anytime!
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