Hackathon for Good
Last weekend the Hague Tech hosted the Hackathon for Good and wow what a successful event! There were 28 teams competing with participants from 23 countries for €17,500 in prize money and a chance to work with some incredible organizations such as NATO and the Red Cross. 120 participants, 15 mentors and 13 challenge owners spent their weekend working on open source projects and contributing to solving impacting issues around the globe. There were even teams who flew in from India and London to join the hackathon. Over one weekend, these teams tackled five data driven challenges focused on building working global solutions ready for immediate implementation. Each and every team worked tirelessly and the results were incredible!
Saturday morning began with a frantic rush for coffee and for individual participants to find a team. Everyone came together now ready to start hacking and were welcomed to begin their challenges by the Mayor of the Hague Pauline Krikke.
The Hague Tech was transformed into an energetic and packed jungle of hackers. Teams were working together to create game plans, to start developing and coding, and to figure out team roles and positions.
Armed with 15 incredible mentors with diverse backgrounds, teams were encouraged to use the expertise made available to them. And boy did they! The sheets for scheduling mentor meetings were quickly filled and everywhere you turned there was a team in deep discussion with a mentor about how to best tackle whatever issues they were facing.
As fatigue kicked in after a full day of working, the fun was just beginning. From free massages, to magic shows, to yoga sessions, and literal mountains of pizza, the hackathon was in full swing.
Sunday rolled around and participants who had gone home to sleep walked into the building, passing sleeping and half asleep teams on their way in who had spent the night at the Hague Tech.
Everything started to hit a frenzied climax as there were only a few hours until code had to be submitted and all the hard work from the past days was sent to judges for deliberation. Each team sent their member who would be presenting to a pitching workshop, pulling them away from their screens to focus on how to best pitch what their teams had been so tirelessly building. Armed with a professional public speaking coach, each team built an emotional narrative to captivate their audience when their time on stage came.
After all the code was submitted and everyone could take a collective breath of relief, beers were cracked open and the smiles across each team made for a bright and exuberant atmosphere.
Now, the time had come. The pitches were beginning! For two days of work, each team had only two minutes to convince the audience and judges that their hard work was deserving of earning a spot on the podium. With 28 teams, and 28 pitches, the room had a tense excitement as it became obvious how close all of the teams were. How was a winner ever going to be decided?
After each team had done all they could, building and presenting their work, it was time to let the judges do their impossible task. Everyone mingled around outside of the room, chatting away with all the interesting people they might not have had a chance to meet over the last days. Before long, the time had come and there was a nervous shuffle of hackers back into the room where each presenter had poured their heart and soul out on stage. After the normal thank yous to the great team that had made the Hackathon for Good possible, the suspense couldn’t be help back any longer. It was time to announce our winners!
With 3rd place was PwC2!
With second place was Hack4Peace!
And our grand winners were……….Monkey Code!
A big round of applause for all of our winners and participants and the hackathon was brought to a close. Teams spent the evening congratulating each other, making connections for the future, and celebrating the great work that had been accomplished over the weekend. The Hackathon for Good was a rousing success and the chorus that came from each conversation after the event was, “I can’t wait for the next one”!
Written by Charles Weiler-Ulin
