Ok, theres a lot of bullshit hackathons that mine people for their IP.
Then, theres the issue of hackathons being prohibitive to folks with kids or carer responsibilities…
So when I find one I can get behind, I make an effort to find out more.
Give me a hackathon thatworks on real-world problems and offers great benefits to participants.
Even better, if its participants are actually industry professionals.
Ordnance Survey(OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain.
It’s free, every week, in your inbox.
It pulls in data from sources such as the OS Maps API and council land registry information.
It investigated households that share the same charging points and distances from the nearest charger.
(How can you not love the term Plonkers?!)
Rate My Chargerwas a concept creat ed by RAC Agilysis to promote the best chargers in the country.
You gain exposure to a diverse pool of potential solutions and can get your ideas validated.
Further, employers arealwaysrecruiting at hackathons, so its a great chance to meet your future employers and colleagues.
Hackathons are for everyone
Even more critical,hackathonsare not just for developers.
You need writers to translate tech concepts into plain English.
Designers who can create charts and graphics, and amazing GIFs are vital.
Equally important are financial folks who can set a potential budget of costings.
This is vital in case you win the funds to finance your idea.
Incidentially, one of my favorite hackathons was a policy hackathon at Latvias5G Techritoryconference.
Yep, a policy hackathon.
It focused on supporting 5G deployment in the Baltic Sea Region.
Thus, an international conference was the perfect place to bring together folks from different industries and regions.
The winning team looked at cross-border travel of autonomous vehicles and gaps in European policy and legislation.
They created an extensive list of things that policymakers need to solve before autonomous vehicles can cross borders.
Do EVs excite your electrons?
Do ebikes get your wheels spinning?
Do self-driving cars get you all charged up?
Story byCate Lawrence
Cate Lawrence is an Australian tech journo living in Berlin.
