HackConEU: My Experience
The Hackathon Organiser’s Conference
I’ve only been to 3 hackathons so far in my life — all being quite a different experience in themselves. But to be invited to go to a technology conference, held twice a year; that gathered a community of hackathon organisers from all over the world? I had absolutely no idea what to expect from the start. Needless to say, I had such a blast, and here’s what I have to take from the overall experience at HackconEU 2016.
Upon arriving at the exquisite 4 star art hotel in Eindhoven, Netherlands; I was welcomed immediately by a group of techies at the hotel lobby bar, warmed by their tales of the evening so far and what I had missed at the previous events throughout the day. Everyone seemed so friendly, and happy to invite me into their circles, I quickly went up to drop off my luggage.
Shortly after trying to get my bearings about and to sneak in a quick rest, my roommate popped into the room. On the whole, he was a pretty cool guy, (Manish was his name) who went to share his experiences coding for a military company back in Amsterdam and how he was hoping to learn things from the conference so as to organise a hackathon for refuges, sometime in the near future! Already amazed by what I had heard, he introduced me to a few more great individuals before we headed back up for a good rest before the main event the following day.
I have to say, the venue was pretty incredible for an event I personally hadn’t heard much of. Upon arriving to the front entrance of the High Tech Campus’s Conference building, I was blown away by the sights. Inside, food and drinks at every table, a Github lounge, a glass revolving door leading out onto the lake outside. One of the cool facts we learnt about High Tech Campus was that it is the most inventive place in the world, with a world-leading 22.9 patents per capita, a whopping lead compared to 8.9 in San Diego. Talk about being in an innovative environment.
The entire theme over the couple of days radiated throughout. Be selfless, help others and help grow the hackathon community. Everyone who had an opportunity to speak/give lightning talks, more or less shared the same message. And you could tell in the way they presented that they really wanted to make a difference in their communities. There was no sense of pride, no sense of competition, just a sense of being part of the hacker family and doing what you love.
At every coffee break I got to chat with incredibly link-minded people, and got an insight into how they had organised their hackathons. I even managed to talk to some about their roles as Developer Evangelist and their overall experience. It really gave me more insight into just how much the technological world has re-shaped itself over the years.
We also got to check out the Phillips Museum after the first day of talks. It was pretty cool to see how significant of an impact Phillips had over the course of the 20th Century; we even got to see the workshop they had developed their first lightbulbs (the filament was made out of cotton!), you could just about tell how old it was from the feel of the room. The tour guide had such a passion, that it was hard to believe just how incredible of a place we were standing within. We even got to eat afterwards in a restaurant that too was once was part of the factory — you could tell from the walls just how old the place was. Again I had an opportunity to share insights into the hacking world and also seek advice for how to possibly start a 3D printing hackathon, for the Makers community.
I was also introduced to Club-Mate for the first time, and that was a drink! It honestly tasted like cigarettes at first (as Joe Nash mentioned), but I could honestly see how the more you’d indulge in it, the more addictive it’d eventually got! I sent a snap to my German friend of it, and he couldn’t event recognise it. I guess it’s just exclusive for the startup culture for now.
Over the course of the two days, we had talks from people all over Europe and North America. From people setting up hackathons in the West Midlands, all the way to business universities in Switzerland in a community, where not many are known to code. Every initiative though was foreseeable: It was to encourage and empower the hacker community no matter where the hackathon was set.
I can’t stress enough how close the community was at HackconEu. Everywhere you looked, people were smiling, offering advice and cracking up a joke or two to people they just met. It really had a vibrant atmosphere on a whole.
If I had to choose, my favourite part were the workshops, which were definitely the most interactive. I learnt a lot about how to deal with logistics, sponsorships as well as understanding the whole judging process worked (especially when dealing with 75+ projects at once!). I even volunteered to go up with 2 others to give our critique on a set of icecream flavours. We had a good laugh, definitely thought the Rocky Road flavour was the winner.
I felt over the past couple of days, I had grown so close to the community, as if I had known everyone there for more than a year or so. It never felt that I was leaving when departing from the event, more like suggesting ‘See you later’ to the majority of friends I had made. We swapped contact details, stickers and such; but I think the most important swapped was our insight and knowledge gathered fromour experiences -how helping one another could help towards strengthening the hackathon community over time.
On the night of Saturday, when Github had generously opened a bar tab for all of us to indulge in deep talks and banter; I met a great group of people, whom we spent the night later in a Dutch karaoke bar. One of the guys, Matti , said the best hackathon he’s ever been to was the first, which was at WarwickHACK. When I told him that was who I represented, he was struck! Another one of his partners was also there, and shared with us his experience of working in the states. That was another point, beyond the hackathons everyone was striving to achieve something. Be it their research in 3rd world country development, to continuing the start-up craze in Amsterdam, to even giving TedX talks at events within Eindhoven itself. Everyone had achieved so much, that it was hard to imagine I was amongst some of the brightest and most forward-thinking people on this planet.
Overall, if were to do HackConEU again, I would not say no to that. It was one of the most refreshing experiences I had come across in a while, and it made me realise that beyond every hackathon that is organised, there is a community. And it radiated throughout the course of these two days. I would just like to thank Alex and Harry for giving me this wonderful opportunity, and hope this helps make WarwickHACK a bigger and more awesome event for everyone who takes part.
Christian is the People Operations Lead at WarwickTECH looking to ensure WarwickTECH works to the best of it’s ability to engage and support its students. He’s a 3rd year Engineering Student with a passion for 3D printing and rapid prototyping. Feel free to reach out to him over tweet or via email!
