My first Hackathon!

It all began on a Christmas Eve when I received an invitation to participate in a hackathon (StartHack '22). Without a second thought, I enthusiastically accepted the challenge. I had never been a part of a hackathon before, so I had no idea what to expect, but I was filled with anticipation.

Weeks passed, and the moment finally arrived. In the afternoon, we headed to St. Gallen. Upon arriving at Olma Messen, we received our badges and a generous amount of swag, including an unexpected abundance of hygiene products! The opening ceremony was somewhat uneventful, but what followed was truly exciting - our introduction to the case partners who presented the challenges we would tackle.

Around 23 o'clock, the hacking officially began, and the event was set to last a grueling 36 hours. We decided to team up with PTV Group, a software company specializing in mobility and transportation, as our case partner. However, I won't dwell on the specifics of our project in this post.

The first night was when I managed to catch the most sleep, yet fueled by copious amounts of Mate and FocusWater, I stayed up late into the night brainstorming. Fortunately, I had brought my own sleeping mat because the provided sleeping areas were all occupied even before the event began. People found resting spots everywhere, even nestled amongst coat racks.

The following day was dedicated to refining our project. The workspace was so dimly lit that no sunlight could penetrate. Stepping outside for a breath of fresh air, the sun appeared abnormally bright and stung the eyes. Nonetheless, fresh air and a splash of water on the face felt incredibly rejuvenating. Free food was provided throughout the event, which included an array of unhealthy snacks. I made an effort to avoid the chocolates and opted for an apple instead.

As we ventured into the final night, exhaustion had taken its toll. I managed to squeeze in a two-hour nap and, upon awakening, felt strangely re-energized, ready to dive back into work. As the night wore on and the effects of caffeine began to wane, things took a surreal turn. Around 4-5 in the morning, we believed we were finally done, or so we thought. I stayed up a bit longer to refine some text and clean up some code. Ultimately, I didn't trust my sleep-deprived brain to produce functional code, so I refrained from making live changes to our product.

By 10 a.m., we had to wrap up and submit our work. Shortly after, we had to present our product to the case partners. They provided valuable feedback and seemed genuinely impressed with our project. In the afternoon, the awards ceremony took place, where each case partner announced their respective winners. The moment we learned that we had won our case, excitement coursed through us. This meant we would present our project on the main stage of the conference.

We were given a mere 5 minutes to prepare our slide deck. Afterward, we endured a considerable wait before taking the main stage. As the other case winners began their pitches, it became evident that they had invested more effort into their slides than we had. Despite our less elaborate presentation, I believe our three-minute pitch went over quite well.

We might not have emerged as overall event winners, but after 36 hours of relentless effort, it felt fantastic to present our project to the crowd. Even more rewarding was the prospect of finally heading home in the evening and falling into a deep, well-deserved slumber.