In its purest form, a hackathon establishes the ideal environment for creating and refining great ideas. Nothing jumpstarts the creative process quite like these words:
“On your marks, get set, go!” or "Who wants to help me solve this problem?"
And that is exactly what a hackathon does.
It's a creative process with a time pressure that excellerates solution creation via the process of collaboration.
The most legendary results of these time-sensitive incubators have, in the space of 24 hours, accomplished what might have taken months of trial and error. Hasbro toys famously created 45 products over the course of just one hackathon.
Luckily for us, hackathons often have one key audience in mind: the user, the customer.
For instance, if you’ve ever “liked” a Facebook post, used the site’s “donate” feature for a great cause, or breathed a sigh of relief to see a friend marked “safe” during a natural disaster, you can thank an internal hackathon for that.
Some of the most popular apps we have on our phones and websites we use, or other social media applications we engage with, were designed in hackathons. Big companies like PayPal still and use Hackathons on a regular basis to encourage their own staff and teams to get involved in tackling major world issues, provide educational resources, or simply help users find solutions to problems they are having.
To successfully solve problems, you need fresh and external perspective, and often Hackathon partners know this and welcome new ideas and difference perspectives on solving their problems. Companies and organsiations like #IGGSHACK partner Ipswich City Council will embrace the benefits of iteration and innovation during the weekend long event.
The benefits of hackathons hardly end with cool products and nifty website features...it is more likely there will be fresh perspective on what some possible solutions could look like in the problem space identified by the partners ICC.
Many a career has been kickstarted by a hackathon. Sometimes you don't even know what you are interested in until you have a go and try it out. During a hackathon participants get to experience what it is like to be a designer, a marketer, a project manager, a public speaker, a technical wiz and a communications guru. Teams get to collaborate across all skill sets and the experience is invaluable. It is also an opportunity for young people to network and collaborate with a diverse group of people form various backgrounds and age groups.
Many hackathons are essentially a live study in cooperative learning and teamwork, skills increasingly in demand in the future of all work. The event format takes the stereotype of the lone genius and flip it on its head.
With this in mind, it’s hardly surprising that 30.3% of all hackathons take place on college and university campuses. Students have the opportunity to learn while trying their hands at a professional-level process. It is more common now to engage younger innovators by working with schools like we are doing here at #IGGSHACK
Team work is the highest priority in these events and encourages team formation with mixed genders, varied age groups, participants with different backgrounds and demographics, with cross cultural experience and genuine collaboration with diverse community groups. The problems that are presented to be solved bring awareness to areas of the community that participants are encouraged to have a genuine influence on, and have the ability to affect change that they will be able to see come to fruition and feel a sense of pride in realising.