Hunter Hack Fest 2017

Hunter region Hackers, Hipsters and Hustlers!
Join us as we mix a dash of MakerFaire spirit, a pinch of StartupWeekend spice and some heat from the talent of local teams to quicken the digital pulse of the Hunter region.
Join in with your #HunterHackFest posts
  HunterHackFest
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HunterHackFest has been postponed beyond Hunter Innovation Festival 2017.
We've refunded all May2017 HIF tickets and will announce new dates in due course.
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Queries? Call Brian on 0414 430 450

A Hackathon is a collection of diverse Hackers (Hardware, Software + Engineering folks) , Hustlers (Marketing, Business types) and Hipsters (Creative, design driven) to create new concepts together in diverse teams by leveraging technology and product design skills, mashed with the creative juices of teams that form around compelling ideas. Our local Hackathon helps explore and prototype new possibilities for the Hunter region, in a Friday night/ Saturday event covering SmartEnergy, AgTech and InclusiveCommunity challenges.

​Hackathons are a proven innovation + disruption model that can accelerate the delivery of new technical solutions to stubborn problems, whilst also creating new economic value, innovations and fundable businesses in a short experimentation + teaming cycle.

Here's what some of our 2016 attendees had to say about the event:
Fantastic event. Professionally run. Support always available throughout the event. Well worth the travel for me to experience working and collaborating with others.
Yesterday I participated in one of my top "out of comfort zone" moments. The entire process from start to finish is loaded with unique experiences that only a process like this could offer. I can't wait for the next one.
This hackathon was particularly inspiring and engaging because of the variety of people there (hipsters, hustlers and hackers). It made for a really amazing vibe and was super fun. I'd encourage anyone who wants to expand their horizons, or even just meet cool people to come along!

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Event Outline

FRIDAY night format 6-9pm
6:15pm* Arrival and event registration at Event Hubs
7pm – 7:30pm Welcome and Speakers 
7:30pm – 9pm Team formation, rules overview and Team Registration
9:30pm Teams announced to public on www.hunterhackfest.com.au for remote interaction on Sat.
SATURDAY format 8am-6pm
8am Doors open and hacking begins at Event Hubs
9am Mentors arrive and circulate to assist your Hacking focus through the day until 3pm;
4pm Submissions close. Pause, breathe and prepare to Pitch!
4:30-5:30pm Pitches and Judging
6pm Close

What happened in 2016?

Of the 7 teams pitching, the following worthy winners emerged:
Joint 1st Place (sharing $1500cash): Team EasyPeasy (Parking made easy) / Team Pretty City (crowdsourced urban beautification of rundown spaces);
Digital CityZen ($1000 cash): Team City Hall Solutions, with their grassroots social impulse aggregation platform to provide moment to moment visibility of community sentiment;
Crowd Fave ($500 prize): Team ReFind, connecting waste stream suppliers to adaptive reuse demands.

Participated in my 1st #hunterhackfest. A great day of collaboration, pitching & fantastic ideas. Congrats everyone pic.twitter.com/GyqwpM3arS

— Nicole Charles (@NicoleCharles) June 12, 2016

Thanks to everybody - especially mentors - for sharing so much awesomeness @laughingmind #hunterhackfest https://t.co/3C7QJ7A7Vm

— Andreza (@passareia) June 12, 2016

Your Hackathon Host


​Brian Hill - is a UoN Alumni, Founder of Laughing Mind and Quiet Rush, CoFounder of Assemblient, with over 20yrs of healthcare and technology consulting experience. He saw the light and moved from Canberra back to his ancestral roots in our region in late 2012, where he is active in helping the startup ecosystem of our region to launch the businesses of tomorrow from the Hunter and Central Coast. As Startup Digest Curator for our region, he posts on local startup updates and events (when he can fit it in). Got something on? Let him know about it.. 

​Brian runs a Digital Makers Meetup to connect + catalyse local digital makers across the Hunter and Central Coast regions, running events like www.hackinghealthtech.com in partnership with UoN and Startup ecosystem partners, as well as Arts+Tech+LifestyleMedicine (STEAM) events like www.lumenmotion.com. 

Founded in 2004, Laughing Mind is catalysing + supporting the growth of new and established businesses in our region with world class collaboration products, IoT solutions + smart portable solar products to power digital nomads. 
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Hunter HackFest 2017 is made possible through the generous support, facilities and time of our Event Partners, Activators and Supporters.

Activator Partners - Category Sponsors

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Enablers

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Industrial IoT DevKits, LPWAN network.
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Spatial dataset partners.
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Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality mentors, $5000 business support service.

Supporters

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Pitch Night venue
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HackDay hosts
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Mentors + Team tools
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Judges + industry mentors.

Location

We're in re-scheduling mode at the moment, with venue details to be confirmed with the release of our new event date.

HunterHackFest - Event Mission

"Grow the capacity of the Hunter to create a vibrant pulse of digital skills, creative spaces, connected communities and emergent ventures, leveraging contemporary tech platforms + skilled people."

Like the Event format? Join us for 2017..

Want to help us make this event great for our attendees? Call Brian on 0414 430 450
Enquire Now
A VentureCatalyst event site by LaughingMind
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