During the first weekend of April, together with Aspire and .NET PG Group, we organized a Hackathon for college and high school students. In reference to the state of mind of participants at the end of hackathons, we called it Zombathon – a Zombie Hackathon.
How did it all start?
The idea for the hackathon came to life in October, after Aspire Systems organized a Hackathon for their employees, to create a game for job fairs.
I had a lot of fun working on the project and decided I wanted some more. A few weeks later, I took part in the biggest hackathon in Europe and when I came back, I asked our HR team, if Aspire would like to host such an event with .NET PG Group. They were way more enthusiastic about it than I expected.
Few weeks went by, and I was invited for a meeting with the Special Force Team. We discussed everything connected with the event; we even came up with the best name for it. And so the preparation started.
The teams and the projects
We had about 60 participants, forming 15 teams. Our contestants had to create an app in one of the three subjects: ‘Volunteering’, ‘Inclusive Learning’ and ‘Friendly Neighbour’. They had a lot of amazing ideas, like a game where you’re one of the Zombathon organizers and you have to help your participants and provide them with WiFi or bring some food to their tables. There was also an application where you could create your own RPG character and let him grow by volunteering in real life.
In the end, we decided that the best application of the Zombathon was ToyShare: a simple app, where you can exchange the toys you don’t want anymore with your neighbours. The team surprised everyone by bringing the UI style of Tinder: if you like a toy you see, you swipe right; if you don’t like it, you swipe left.
What’s next?
After the Zombathon, we asked our contestants to complete a survey about the quality of the event and whether they’d like to take part next year. Almost all of them answered yes. With that in mind, we’re going to prepare an even better and bigger event, hopefully again with such an amazing team and graphic design.
See you next year!