#hacksoton

May 9th crept up on us a bit - Internally at Team #hacksoton we always talk about how quick our events come around again but this one really came out of nowhere!

When we stop to think about it, it's a bit crazy - We've done six of these now. Six! Armed with free food and drink, our attendees braved the morning rain to come and join us for a day of creativity and learning, and the results were spectacular. Our audience continues to prove to us just how brilliant #hacksoton can be.

I make no excuses for the fact that I enjoying walking the floor and finding out what everyone is up to, and this event was no exception - In fact, this just might be my favourite roster of projects ever to come out of one of our events.

First up, the children (and grown up kids!) who participated in our Young Rewired State/Coder Dojo session in celebration of World Scratch Day (Arranged by YRS Soton). Scratch is a visual programming language which makes it super fun for younger coders to get into. Our child army delivered in spades by not just creating entertaining and original projects themselves, but being brave enough to share them with the whole room.

Among them, we had a sound detector, two dance simulators, a rock-dodging 2D platformer prototype and a drawing canvas (Controlled by bananas, naturally). Huge thanks to Rebecca, Reuben, The Epic Dudes and Team Make Oscar Dance (Yes, they picked their own team names!) - You were all brilliant and I can't wait to see what you all get up to in the future.

Perhaps inspired by this awesome display of creativity, the rest of our attendees responded in kind. Zac had an old Nokia screen wired up to an arduino to revive the ultimate phone game, Snake (Sorry, Angry Birds) and Brandon showed off a Spreadsheet Webcam - With a whopping 2 frames a minute refresh rate as the webcam was translated into greyscale squares in a Google Docs Spreadsheet. Nifty stuff.

Team Strava (Matt, Andy, Dave, Rachael) showed off Strava One Up, which they described as the "Top Trumps of Cycling data" for all those cyclists out there who relish competition with their mates, Milos and Bernardo had begun work on a very cool looking single player Scrabble experience dubbed First Word War and Tetiana gave us an interesting look at Rack with her presentation.

This time around we invited @sotoncreatives to set a challenge for any willing participants who perhaps wanted a little more guidance and a goal for the day - The challenge was "Put Southampton on the map", and in response their willing volunteers (Elbrie, Trevor, Christopher) created Soton City Data (Link coming soon!) - A repository for open data sources in Southampton which is something I'm personally excited to see grow. The scope for civic hacks with this data made freely available is tremendous and it really could be the start of an open data movement in Hampshire, so long may it continue!

The Southampton Makerspace always bring the goods to our events, and this time was no exception. In addition to 3D Printing, Jem’s WordPress craft site, this infinity mirror(!?) and Benjie's Node-RED powered home automation (Voice activation! Light sensors!), James (XRobots) brought along a 3D Printed, life sized R6 droid. It entertained the room by driving around and playing Star Wars snippets (Plus a little AC/DC for good measure), with James at the remote controls. Not content with how utterly badass this was, he spent the day working on some more moving parts and spinning lights to add to his creation. I want one.

If you came along, I want to thank you personally for making #hacksoton 6 such a tremendous success. One of these days I’ll get tired of praising you all, but not today. Of course, behind the scenes there’s a team of dedicated individuals who help make our events possible. This time around, make sure to send your thanks to Hinge, Central Hall (and their kitchen staff!), Etch, Moov2, Southampton Creatives, YRS Soton, Phil Dye, Tom Frame and Dan Thomas.

#hacksoton will return.

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.

- Adam

"I'm psyched because I know that this could be the best one yet" - Adam Burt, 25th July 2014, 7:32pm

Nearly a year after we began in earnest, and with the confidence of several successful events pushing us onward, we rolled into Central Hall on Saturday with all the fanfare deserving of #hacksoton's first birthday.

We brought cake. We brought presents. We brought proper pasties and a tremendous breakfast. Most importantly, we brought you.

Really, the secret behind #hacksoton's success has always been you guys - Filled seats is nice, but you lot are more than that. You are the creative, the bold, the brave, the willing. All that atmosphere, all the magic and inspiration that we see on the floor and on the stage comes from the attendees.

It was an honour then, to swagger onto the stage knowing that all we had to do was give you guys the space and the time to be brilliant.

I felt at peace with #hacksoton this time around - I make people clap for every show and tell because I know first hand how terrifying it is to stand in front of that many people - But any nerves weren't a factor here. Even when demos weren't going to plan, I was comfortable that things were as they should be: Weird, zany, rough around the edges at times. But always interesting.

With the dust settling, I wanted to do my traditional writeup to share some of what I saw, and to send out some relevant thank you messages to those who helped send off our first year in style.

An exceptionally hot day yields a lower turnout for events like ours - That much has always been true. Summer is a famously terrible time for hackdays. That so many of you chose us over the beach, and braved the warmth of the hall with us is something I take real pride in. Proud moments were in abundance, as a matter of fact: Our highest turnout of young people. Our most successful learning session to date. Hearing from those who's careers (and whole lives) have been changed by what we're doing.

Given the anniversary theme, it felt right to reflect internally on our mission and whether we were accomplishing it, and on the evidence available to me now, the answer is an unreserved yes.

The floor was full of interesting projects - flexible 3D printing, chordal keyboards, Oculus Rift projects, raspberry pi's, and even a life sized wii-mote controlled Dalek - Which was particularly good at scaring children out in the hallway who had no idea what we were doing. Those not caught up in this heady mix of geeky insanity were content to hone or pick up new skills - HTML, Bluetooth Low Energy beacons, Unity, even learning Japanese. And of course, the outrageously successful soldering workshop put on by our good friends at the Southampton Makerspace.

Each person emerging from the soldering room was carrying their own little pride and joy - A PCB they made themselves and could take away with them - and they were all smiling.

Phil from Twilio was on hand to help us with a little quick hack of our very own - A system where you could text in for the chance to win one of our 'birthday presents', which were generously paid for by Peer1. The list of presents were basically a hacker's wet dream - Home automation, arduino kits, and more. Even a tablet.

As the presents pile dwindled and with the threat of delicious pasties on the horizon, we opened up our signups for show and tell. The response was great.

From password encryption to spam emails to front end developer tools, and a whole lot more besides, there was something for everyone.

We saw Potzy, which transformed Benjie and Michaël into DJ's worthy of the Beatport top 100 with the help of some code and a few potentiometers. Taiko showed off just how much more than us kids really know, by doing some stuff in Minecraft that still kind of blows my mind. When I played it, all I could manage was to dig a shallow hole and sit in it waiting to die. He knocked up a sorting machine and a flaming arrow cannon in a few hours.

Zac Colley showed off a way to put a cat's face on your snapchats, which I know will excite a large portion of the internet (They make weird Skyrim mods. Don't google it.) and Paul Bird/Brandon Hawkes made a democratically controlled videogame - Mario Kart where everyone controls the same kart - which made getting hit by a blue shell look like a merciful way to lose.

It would be impossible to list everything everyone did without this being the longest blog post ever, but the point is clear: We couldn't ask for a better audience.

To that audience, and all who have visited us over the last year, I want to thank you.

It's been a hell of a year.

- Adam

P.S - Shout out time! #hacksoton is not just free, it's free++ - We throw in free food, free drinks and a whole lot more besides. We simply couldn't do that without the support of our sponsors and helpers. Your sponsors this time around were Central Hall, Benefex, Peer1, and Twilio. Thanks to James Bailey for paying for the drinks. Cheers to Estimote for the free beacons, and to the guys at the Southampton Makerspace for the fantastic soldering workshop. Helpers: Renaud, Stu, Lilian, Kamila and probably a whole bunch more I'm forgetting (Sorry!). Your organisers this time around: Dan of Moov2, Phil and Tom from Etch, and myself.

It might not feel like it, but a year is a long time.

Over the last year, it has been my absolute privilege to play host at 3 #hacksoton events, and see what ridiculous, inspired things you guys can all do given an environment like ours. Southampton stepped up to the plate, and you showed what you're made of time and time again. We grew, too. What started as a few guys in the Etch UK office became a tremendously successful event, with thousands of pounds of free food and drink, hundreds of attendees, unmatched creativity and national recognition to boot.

With that behind us, it felt right to make our latest event a full blown celebration. A celebration of you, mainly.

You have the power to make these things happen, and birthday parties are no fun without friends, so we're truly thankful that you lot still turn up in droves to support what we do. We hope you've enjoyed the past events we've had together, and we hope you want to come again. If you're new, you've chosen a fantastic time to try #hacksoton too - Because in addition to all our usual goodness, we're bringing the party.

A yearly anniversary is also a good time to take stock, isn't it? Whether it's drunkenly looking out over the fireworks on New Years Eve, silent gazes at an anniversary dinner, or peering around the room sleepily after Christmas lunch while Toy Story rolls away in the background, there's something about a year passing which starts to put life into some perspective.

I hope that for you, like me, the past year has been a good one. I hope you can look back over the last 12 months and say you did your best, that you had a good time, that you made brave choices and are better off for it.

If you can't, well... There's always next year. It's never too late to be who you might have been, and the next 365 days are what you make of them.

What better way to start than by kickstarting your creativity with us in Central Hall, on July 26th?

Tickets are available now, and if you're reading this we'd love you to join us.

Many happy returns,

As you're probably aware, #hacksoton is free to attend.

Completely, totally, 100%.

We often feed you. Where possible, we give you cool stuff to play with too. All of that happens due to sponsors. Sometimes people wonder about our approach to sponsorship, so I thought I'd lay it out in full here on our blog.

We need sponsors to continue doing what we do, on the scale that we do it. That much is certainly true. We are however, picky about who we let on board.

We like to involve companies who share some of our vision or are willing to be creative about their sponsorship. You're not going to get boring sales pitches from us now, and you won't get them ever if we do our job right.

Our sponsors need to understand what we're trying to accomplish, and their contribution has to be supportive of our goals. They pay for some food to keep you guys energised, we give them kudos. They want to buy something which improves the event experience? We let you all know who to thank.

Compromise isn't a word that sits well in #hacksoton planning meetings, and that's why we'd rather turn down money than take it from the wrong places. We hope you believe us when we say that corporate interests will never be the dominant force at one of our events.

It takes all sorts, but our favourite type of sponsors are the ones who like to be a bit creative - They have an idea of something that our audience would like, and they help fund it. We're always on the lookout for companies with the right attitude, so if that's you, get in touch.

On the 22nd of February 2014, about 100 people descended on Central Hall for our third event – #hacksoton 3. What started as a few guys hanging out in the Etch UK office, grew to a large gathering last November and has now established itself as an event to be reckoned with, and we had a great time introducing the #hacksoton experience to new people and catching up with old faces. I hope you did too.

#hacksoton, for me, is always about surprise – Surprise when you lot all actually turn up, surprise when I walk the room and see the diversity of our guests, surprise at the quality of the free food, the giveaways, the response from local companies… The list goes on a bit.

This time around, the biggest surprise came from you. The creativity, talent, variety was incredible – With drinks and snacks flowing, our latest batch of attendees really raised the bar and produced some of the best stuff I’ve seen grace our stage yet.

It really validates our ethos of having the low barriers to entry and the pressure-free environment, because the people who historically might have thought themselves not good enough to attend a traditional hackathon are always the ones I enjoy talking to most, because (without fail) they are always interesting, bursting with new ideas, and a lot more intelligent than they give themselves credit for!

I saw so much that I loved – Whether it was witnessing 3D printing or trying the Oculus Rift, or playing a real 3D maze game with a metal ball by waving an iPad around, the floor was buzzing during the day with the excitement associated with doing stuff you think is cool.

We’re always trying to one-up ourselves in one way or another, and this time we wanted to engage people in new ways, so after luring you all in early with bacon (Free breakfast was a #hacksoton first) we had our first ever #hacksoton workshop.

As the First Beanbag Selfie War began to rage on our social wall, Benjie (from hacker collective MakeSoton) was giving a few lucky folk an introduction to Coffeescript and Node.js – The feedback from this session was fantastic, so we’ll probably be looking to do more stuff like this in the future. Let us know what you’d like to see covered and we’ll try and get it organised!

After beating everyone at Starwhal and eating lunch, I was thrilled to discover that the hacks that were born in the morning were beginning to take shape. Websites which listed cool domains (I still need to buy some of those…), ways to collaboratively press Q W O and P with other people, and a DJ experience which to be honest, makes me look like a bit of a dick.

Me, channelling my inner David Guetta

“Wow, this burrito is delicious, but it is filling.”

– Ron Burgandy, Anchorman (Also, our attendees)

After a delicious dinner we settled into the show and tell, which was my favourite part of the whole day. All the aforementioned stuff got a moment in the sun, and much more besides. We had WakeUpRoulette, sensors to help you stop bumping into walls, wheelchair tracking data plotted onto maps, zombie shoot ‘em ups, ways to make music out of transmitted web data and more.

That we get to witness the stuff you guys are capable of is a really special treat for us. That goes for everyone, from those who are taking their first steps into our world, to the people who live and breathe technology and dream in C++.

So here’s to you guys, and the future of #hacksoton – Welcome aboard, and make yourself comfortable. We’re going for a ride together, and I already can’t wait to find out what’s at the next stop.

PS. Thanks as ever to the great people behind what we do: Central Hall, Central Coffee, Etch, Moov2, Benefex, Peer1, Twilio, Bloc, UX Media, Benjie and Jem Gillam, Stu Lanham, Lilian Tula, Simon Johnson, Mexigo and anyone I’m forgetting. We couldn’t have done it without you!