January 31st was a cold day - Truth be told, I stayed in bed for an extra 15 minutes wondering whether I would dare put my feet out from under the covers and brave it. Luckily, the sensible part of my brain kicked in - "Uh, it's #hacksoton today Adam. You need to go! It's going to be good!"
My sensible brain (As he often is, much to my chargrin) was right - It was.
With the tables packed away, projector powered down, wires recoiled and the dust settled, it's time to look back on #hacksoton 5.
Internet issues aside, our morning went as expected - Delicious breakfast, a refreshing packed lunch and plenty of free drinks on offer to keep you all going.
Our obsession with giving you guys chances to do new things continued unabated, with sessions on offer from Andy Bennett (via Soton Makerspace) on Spark Cores with Node.js, and YRS Southampton putting on a Makey Makey session for our younger attendees. We're committed to giving you guys new experiences, and we're always on the hunt for more, so if you (or someone you know) wants to run a session at our next event in May, give us a shout!
Hot dogs arrived later, to a veritable stampede of cylindrical meat enthusiasts. Actually, even the vegetarian ones were swiftly demolished. All that was left then for our intrepid attendees, was to put on the finishing touches, and decide whether you were going to show off your creation on stage.
It was a whirlwind of a day, and visiting every table in the room was a bit like time travel, because I felt like I lost a whole day being absorbed by all the cool stuff on show. And as the Show & Tell revealed, there was plenty to see - You might have noticed that it didn't exactly go to plan, by the way - Technical issues caused some frustrations, so thanks for understanding and not heckling me (much) when I was filling time!
Thankfully, what you guys had to show was excellent, which made up for any slip ups on our part. In no particular order, we saw the return of hackcam (Eventually...), fluid dynamics visualisations, VAT upgrades for Magento, anonymous HTML site hosting, thermal printers, JavaScript chopstick bagpipes, remote control car racing with sensor-detected lap times, a Python-powered chat bot, an awesome website (Chloe's first!) about things to do with a Makey Makey, a PC retrofitted into a Commodore 64 and a websockets-based whack a mole game played with as many smartphones as you can get on the same network, and even a game where you shake your phone to make me dance like David Brent. In time, we hope to have video of some of these up online, so stay tuned for that!
The fact that so many of you, our attendees, are repeat offenders (for lack of a better word!) and keep coming back to us, time and time again, is a real privilege. We are so proud to have the community that we do, and we're also blown away by our continued growth - Every event brings new faces, new teams and new hacks to the fold, and this is just the start of things to come in 2015.
Attempting a 5th event was, in some ways, slightly risky - What if we run out of steam? What if people get bored of coming? How many 'franchises' survive a fifth incarnation unscathed?* Luckily for me and the guys, it turns out we've still got plenty to add, thanks largely to the sheer volume of talent, willingness and verve of the local community. #hacksoton 6 is coming in May, and it will be my pleasure to welcome you all back with open arms. See you there.
Before I sign off, let's take a minute to thank the people who made this possible. A huge thanks to Etch, Moov2, Central Hall, Zamzar, Freeagent, Solent University, Andy Bennett (and the Soton Makerspace), YRS Southampton, and the assorted staff within each of the above who have helped make this a huge success. Without their support, we could not have done it.
*Fast and Furious 5 is totally the best one, guys.
