TechTogether: A Place for Everyone
Think about your last trip, the car ride there, the turns you took, the scenery, the passengers with you, and the cars around you. Everyone is going on their own journey, starting at different places and times. Even if our destinations are different, that’s what makes the journey personal and unique.
Hackathons are like car rides, a journey that takes you on many turns with different people, perspectives, and experiences. My first time attending a hackathon was TechTogether Boston in 2020 and since then I have participated in more TechTogether events; my most recent one being TechTogether Atlanta.
Think about your last trip, the car ride there, the turns you took, the scenery, the passengers with you, and the cars around you. Everyone is going on their own journey, starting at different places and times. Even if our destinations are different, that’s what makes the journey personal and unique.
Hackathons are like car rides, a journey that takes you on many turns with different people, perspectives, and experiences. My first time attending a hackathon was TechTogether Boston in 2020 and since then I have participated in more TechTogether events; my most recent one being TechTogether Atlanta.
How to start your journey
For my first hackathon, TechTogether Boston, I was extremely nervous about joining a team and not being able to do a lot to help. I questioned my abilities without considering my strengths. It wasn’t until I talked to my team and started brainstorming ideas that I realized, I’m supposed to be here. I have nothing to prove and nothing to lose but I do have a lot to gain and offer. I knew I was a problem solver and I had creative ideas but I still wondered, would I actually be able to create this all in a weekend’s journey? To save you all time from wondering like I did, the answer is YES! More importantly, if you believe you can, you will!
TechTogether is a place for everyone and offers the best beginner-friendly hackathons. There are no expectations when you join. You can do as much or as little as you want. If you don’t want to join a team there are many activities for learning and socializing with others through workshops, social events, and the discord channels. If you do decide you want to be on a team, you can still do all of that too!
Choosing a car and your passengers
Part of the experience that makes up your journey comes from the passengers you choose to travel with. When it comes to hackathons, having a team makes everything more fun. TechTogether Atlanta does an excellent job with team formation events. There is also a team formation channel on Discord for everyone to introduce themselves, list their skills, and goals for the weekend.
The most important part of forming teams is being honest about your goals and communicating what you will and will not be able to do. There are so many paths you can take when creating a project, if you don’t feel comfortable with the tools needed for one way or they are not working like you hoped they would, you can always look for other solutions. In fact, you almost always need a backup plan. The best part is that you will always have your teammates and mentors to help you along the way!
Extra turns and obstacles
Earlier I mentioned how I questioned whether or not I could actually create something in a weekend with my team. While I said yes, I need to clarify. You will create something. Will it be what you had imagined from the start with everything falling into place? Probably not. Is that okay? Absolutely! One of my favorite parts of hackathons is dreaming big. No idea is too small or too big, but every idea leads to something great.
Sometimes it feels like we should keep ideas or thoughts to ourselves if we are not 100% sure that they are the right thing to do or say. Hackathons taught me to speak up about anything and everything so that my team knows what I am thinking and can either help me follow what they are trying to do, or they can branch off of my own ideas and thoughts to create something better.
While I used to think that hackathons were only for super technical people with all sorts of coding skills, I have learned that they are a place for everyone. We need problem solvers, designers, ideas, people who are willing to try something new, and different perspectives. TechTogether is a place for everyone no matter where you’re starting your journey.
Buckle up and enjoy the ride
Winning is amazing, but it’s important to take a step back because what you will remember is the journey. I have learned that the journey is what makes everything incredible. The journey itself is fulfilling, not the win or the prize at the end. The sleepless hours fixing that last bug, enhancing your UI/UX, deploying your project, or playing scribbl.io and taking Avenger team photos is what you will remember.
Enjoy what really matters during the ride, spend time learning something you have always wanted, network with companies, attend workshops, work with your team to create the idea you all envisioned. Do your best and don’t worry about the other cars around you. The route you take and when you get there is unique to you.
My TechTogether Atlanta Journey
I came into TechTogether Atlanta with passengers from other journeys. I made amazing friends through hackathons and would never have met them otherwise. We are all from different states or countries with different skills, experiences, and perspectives. We all started at different points and our paths crossed through TechTogether Atlanta.
Using what my team and I have learned since all of our first hackathons we were able to create a project that embodies how much we have grown with web development, machine learning, and deployment using the cloud.
Each of us added value from brainstorming ideas to actually making our final idea come to life. The best part is that our final product was built from ideas each of us had thought of. We decided to make a whole Marvel-themed website called ULTRAVERSE, that included an events page for public watch parties, super yoga through machine learning, and an interactive movie map through Microsoft Azure maps. Here is the link to our project if you want to learn more! https://devpost.com/software/ultraverse
If you have any questions about hackathons like TechTogether, feel free to contact me on LinkedIn and I will be happy to chat! https://www.linkedin.com/in/zaina-shawar/
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