You can still register your team to participate in the first Active Citizens hackathon until May 30 (by 3:00 pm). Together with experts, you will work on the problem you want to solve and have the opportunity to win prizes worth up to PLN 5,000.
The first hackathon: ’20 Hours for Climate and the Environment’ will take place on 19-20 June in Warsaw and will be devoted to topics related to environmental protection and combating climate change. We will be looking for solutions to problems that your local community faces on a daily basis. It could be the fight against illegal rubbish dumping, massive lawn mowing or other examples of exploitation of nature’s resources, low environmental awareness and the resulting use of fossil fuel cookers, for example. What to do. Activities for children and parents, a contest, a social campaign or an outdoor game? The hackathon will be a great opportunity to think about what to do and how to do it to get people involved.
About the hackathon
Who are we inviting?
You – people for whom eco topics are important. If your organisation is already working on the environment, this meeting is for you! If you would like to become more involved in environmental activities or would like to integrate them into your organisation’s programme – you are also welcome!
Why a hackathon?
A hackathon is a special and very interesting meeting format. During the event, your time to work will be limited. You will have 20 hours (so much and so much only), but also the comfort of focusing one hundred per cent of your attention on finding solutions. Both of these features of a hackathon are good fuel for creativity.
The hackathon will conclude with presentations of the solutions. The best ones will be selected by the votes of the people attending and the experts advising you during the event. The selected solutions will be awarded (an in-kind prize worth up to 5,000 PLN and two financial prizes).
Regardless of the prizes, each team will finish the hackathon with a ready-to-implement idea, consulted with the expert(s) and those participating.
What will happen?
The event will begin before noon on 19 June and end in the afternoon of 20 June. It will consist of several parts. We will start by defining needs and value propositions so that we can generate ideas for solutions knowing the perspective of their audience. A special session will be devoted to the preparation of an idea’s communication plan and a presentation that outlines its main objectives.
Each part will be preceded by a short introduction and instructions for participants. During and between sessions, you will have an opportunity to lead discussions between the teams and consult the way and results of your work with experts. You will present the solutions developed during the hackathon during the concluding session (pitching).
Our experts are:
- Noemi Gryczko (learning experience designer, Information Society Development Foundation) and Paulina Jędrzejewska (Culture Shock Foundation) – service design,
- Joanna Szymańska (Active Citizens Fund – Regional Programme, Information Society Development Foundation) – service design and communication,
- Monika Schmeichel-Zarzeczna (Sektor 3.0, Information Society Development Foundation) – user experience (UX) and new technologies,
- Gosia Świderek and Krzysztof Wychowałek (Centre for Ecological Activities ‘Sources’) – ecological activities.
New competences
The event will also be an opportunity for people from the organisation to gain new competences. Learning how to work with the service design method, which allows you to look for solutions focused on the needs of users, can become an interesting tool and a new way of working in an organisation, every time it faces another challenge to tackle.
How to join?
It’s simple! All you need to do is fill in a short form. Describe the problem you would like to find a solution to for during the hackathon and then briefly explain why you think it is worth tackling.
We will invite approximately 10 teams of three people to participate. Recruitment will take place to 30 May, 3:00 p.m. We will select the most interesting and well-described challenges, and we will inform the selected teams of the results of the recruitment by 31 May. We will provide and cover the costs of accommodation in Warsaw (from 19 to 20 June) for those who will commute to Warsaw (distance up to 20 km from the city limits).
More information about the Active Citizens hackathons is here.
See the Active Citizens hackathons regulations.
The Sector 3.0 Programme is a partner of the event. The Sector 3.0 Programme is an initiative of the Polish-American Freedom Foundation, implemented by the Information Society Development Foundation..
