Fostering CCI in industrial regions
Fostering CCI in industrial regions
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Name of test case:
“Industrial Hackathon - Testing CCI capacities for tackling industrial challenges
Where and when was the case tested?
In Poland, Silesia region, the first edition was tested in September 2020, the second edition in September 2021.
In Austria, Linz, in June 2021.
What was the test case about?
Sometimes, the local creative and entrepreneurial scene needs a facilitator of cooperation and an institution to matchmake different actors and bring added value to the regional ecosystem. With the “Industrial Hackathon” the project partners built a bridge between traditional industry and CCI and showed them how to use the potential of cooperation to boost the development of both sides. The cooperation should also widen the perspective on industrial sector challenges, as well as an overall regional ecosystem of innovation development. The partners also wanted to build relationships between local companies from different sectors to boost the strength and bring added value to their region.
The Polish partners implemented two versions of the “Industrial Hackathon”: For the first edition the Polish project partners cooperated with the biggest ICT festival in their region, named “BBDays4.IT”. The concept of the event was to make it fully virtual, the team worked remotely during 78 hours to finish their projects and the festival was broadcasted live via YouTube. Each day the Polish partners connected with different teams to discuss their progress. On the last day the teams pitched their ideas in front of the jury and the winners were announced on YouTube. After finishing this first virtual edition the Polish partners kept in touch with the organisers of the festival and planned a physical event in September 2021. Their second edition was a traditional 24 hour coding marathon. The participants were grouped in teams and placed in one room to work on the challenges. This time the challenges were announced at the beginning of the Hackathon, so each team had exactly the same time to work.
On the other hand, the Austrian partners organised an event with 48 hours “hacktime” and a small side programme. Their call for challenges was addressed to open-minded industrial companies that are facing complex challenges, want to go public with one of them and have no reservations about unconventional approaches. During the Hackathon the participants formed seven groups deciding to work on one of three challenges. To get to know each other better, they had a first joint lunch. After the lunch each company had another time slot called “deep dive” just with its hacker teams to go into detail about the challenge and answer specific questions of the teams. Afterwards, the 48 hours of teamwork started. All teams worked until the end of the Hackathon and presented their solutions in front of the jury and the audience.
In general, a Hackathon is modifiable, depending on what you want to achieve. You can find more information about the format of a Hackathon here.
Documentation of the test case our partners from Poland provided
Documentation of the test case our partners from Austria provided
With this format you:
- Enable collaboration of CCI and industry.
- Give cultural and creative workers a platform to show what they are capable of.
- Create relations and boost coding community building in the region.
Learnings:
- As everybody works and learns differently, possible side programmes of the Hackathon should be voluntary.
- Work together with experienced people to help industrial companies to shape their challenges, so creatives get attracted to participate.
- A Hackathon requires courage and openness from both sides: the companies share insights and challenges that they really face, while the hackers especially in the end, when pitching their results, put themselves out with ideas and – due to the time limit – imperfect solutions.
©SACCI
pictures © by Szymon Pryszcz
