Bringing Technology & Creative Industries Together

Hacking for Good? Hacking for Innovation? Yes, it's not hacking the Pentagon or MI6... To the contrary - creatives, developers, coders, and entrepreneurs get together, get creative and get to build cool stuff - that's what a HackFest is all about. Hackfest.tv will include 50-100 developers who will be given the simple topic of hacking TV to make it cooler!

We will give them APIs, SDKs and data and challenge them to code/design/engineer/make and break for 48 hours, building their own prototype solutions or ideas. Showers and huge comfy sofas available for a bit of shuteye and cleanup if you plan to stay the entire Friday night! Major Prizes and Chance to Show the TV Industry what TECH can do!

At the end of the hackfest on Saturday, October 27, 2012 at 17:00-18:00, selected teams will do a short presentation of their work to the group of fellow developers, sponsors, judges and press. And then prizes are given on the evening on Saturday during the HackFest wrap-up party
October 26-27, 2012

Who will be attending?

Over 1,000 leading broadcasters, technologists, hackers, storytellers, content creators, brands, researchers and media brands. Some of the biggest and most disruptive players in Transmedia will be facilitating workshops – from Ogilvy Innovation Labs to Portal Entertainment; BBC Writers Room to Young Rewired State; Said Business School to Agora Media. Remember you can apply for be part of London Transmedia Fest 2012 by registering your interest in not only Hackfest but also six others!

Time:

 All APIS (we have 30 from sponsors and open source with another 100 available) will be made available 24 hours before kickoff at 17:00 on Thursday, October 25th. There are options for streaming and storage online from sponsors such as Jet Stream and Cloudsigma so you will have time to prepare any content if you have any and secondly, have a good look at what's there.

You don't have to be there to sign up at 9am on Friday - but you should be there by 17:00 where you can check in and get your badge at the entrance. But you might want to, if you have the time, come and see the Ogilvy exhibition and drop by a few hours earlier as they won't be there on Saturday. The hackathon runs right through until Saturday at 17:00. We will explain more about the judging on Thursday - and there are some very cool prizes which we will announce then.

We have room for 100 to spend the night if you so choose. Ravensbourne has showers, nice big comfortable sofas and it's not as bad as it sounds.  The hackfest will be on the fourth and sixth floors - with the fourth floor being a 'chillout' space and the sixth floor more bustling.

How It Works -Forming Groups
 

We are going to run it similarly to Startup Weekend format where we have a microphone out and people can simply start sharing their ideas to the crowd and groups are formed ad hoc - generally.

However, we have also opened up a Linkedin Group which you can see below if you want to start networking early. Start posting on ideas and get to know people ahead of time if you like. Try and keep the groups under six people.

What makes this hackathon more interesting than any other we have seen is the amount of content specialists (transmedia storytellers, producers, writers) and entrepreneurs who have signed up. As well as the usual coders, developers, UX/UI, and design talent usually found at these events. This truly will be an experiment in media convergence and hacking.

Food and Drink

We will be bringing in Pizza on Friday night with drinks and there will be snacks on the Saturday party but there's also a regular bar and some snacks available on site with Ravensbourne staff. Note there will be some free booze as well as Cisco has sponsored drinks on one of the nights.

Get Social!
@tvhackfest is the official Twitter account - #tvhackfest is the hashtag and the short link is http://bit.ly/tvhackfest . Facebook is https://www.facebook.com/TvHackfest