Is the golden age of Hackathons over?

What is a Hackathon? Originally hackathons were purely events in which coders would work on different types of systems building tasks in a short intensive program. Yet with time the event type has moved on to encompass different types of topics but keeping the intensive nature of the events.

The GENGREEN project organized an online hackathon called Hack IT Green, where participants solved real world wicked problems of companies and pitched for sustainable awards. The hackathon was organized mostly online with a small group of students and visiting students from Germany being present in Centria’s campus area.

The hybrid format turned out to be fairly easy to organize, as we were able to divide the people on-site into their own groups, allowing them to work face-to-face on campus. Zoom was used by both groups but particularly for those participating online, and they, too, were given their own private space where they could refine their ideas into rock-solid pitches. Some groups even were a mix of online and on campus participants.

When evaluating the solutions developed by the students, the companies were particularly pleased with their innovativeness and strong presentations.

This combination of online and hybrid solution proved vital to achieving a variety of participants but also enabled those that normally would not be able to be present to have that option. The online nature was also of benefit to the companies, as the case companies for the event ranged from different areas in Finland to also Norway and Sweden.

The companies were impressed by the students’ ideas and their enthusiasm for tackling the challenges they presented. When evaluating the solutions developed by the students, the companies were particularly pleased with their innovativeness and strong presentations. The students were credited with not only gaining experience in presenting their ideas and networking opportunities, but also in course credits, as the hackathon was incorporated into a course for engineering students.

All in all, the event was a win-win-win for all; the companies, students and the project. So, from our perspective, the golden age of hybrid and online hackathons is just getting started!

The GENGREEN -project is all about closing the Small-Business and Gender Gap through education for green, sustainable and competitive growth. Its main objective is to support 50 female entrepreneurs spread across Southern and Central Ostrobothnia, Lapland, Norrbotten, Tromsø, and Finnmark to launch green businesses or to make their companies more sustainable.