Powered by lightning fast internet, lasagne and tons of Club Mate, our 5th Hackday was a success! So, here we are with our own review about a day full of projects, sun – and caffeine.
This year’s Hackday took place at Colonia Nova, a proper Berlin-style venue in the famous Neukölln district. Let’s be honest, the huge and sunny rooftop terrace on the 5th floor made our day even better. It was great to enjoy the sunshine while hacking with our colleagues – because yes, we set up the wifi there too!
If you are one of our aficionados, you might already know that the 10 main ingredients for a perfect Hackday are:
- THE people – our hackers, 100 people among our Engineering, Product, Marketing, Didactics and Design Teams;
- The projects – 15 ideas made it into live demos and the outcomes included artificial intelligence, role playing games, hardware, musical instruments & much more;
- Timeframe – we hacked from 10 am to 19.30, with a countdown projected on the wall reminding us how time flies when you´re having fun.
- Yummy food – from some breakfast snacks, to the mediterranean lunch feast and the proper pizza from Naples in the evening, we were feeling as if it was Christmas at Grandma´s;
- Caffeine – coffee, club mate, coffee, club mate and repeat; ideas need power to make it into projects.
- Demos – each team had 3 minutes for presenting their project with a demo and without talking; that´s always a challenge, but that is also when creativity comes into play;
- Good vibes – smiles, sun, good food, drinks, a guitar, flip flops, bean bags, sofas, music, some freshly baked bread rolls, these are the good vibes we know!
- Competition – Hackdays are fun, yet really competitive; some teams might have similar projects so..that little detail always makes the difference to the final vote.
- Prize & T- Shirts – no competition comes without a prize! The winning crew won a Lasergame team building experience while all participants received the black Hackday 5 t-shirt with a really cool logo.
- Afterparty – Hackdays can also be intense and frantic; nothing better than a Berliner Eckkneipe down the street for celebrating the great success altogether. Zauber Insel, you are our new favourite spot!
What to say to wrap-up our review?
Hackdays now play a huge part in our working culture. Some people are already thinking about their next projects, others are still recovering. Days like these are surely fun, challenging and rewarding…because in the end, Hackdays are all about Learning; learning how to work with new technologies and tools, learning how to work in a new team, learning how to work in a very quick way and learning how to build awesome stuff.
What will we learn next time? Well, check out our open positions; you might be part of it!