South Coast Summit - Hackathon & Winners Announcement

The Hack

South Coast Summit - A Microsoft Cloud Technology Conference is over! I think some of us are having Event Blues :D I certainly am! William Dorrington ?? and I wanted to take this opportunity you ANNOUNCE THE WINNERS and Say thanks to all of the people who were involved and who helped on the day!

We were joined by a number of our friends from the NHS on the day, which was awesome because there were loads of folks who were experiencing REAL WORLD problems who we could all talk to. Thanks to Stephanie Stasey ???? for arranging this. The Theme for the Hack was "Keep it Moving" which meant teams needed to come up with solutions focused on enabling people on the move. We opened the scope up to any type of solution, but most teams focused on creating things that may help the NHS. Some use cases were

1. Hospital Porter
2. Inspections / Audit
3. Bedside Hospital Visits
4. Facilities Management

All teams did a TREMENDOUS job of sticking to the use case, and we thank ALL of the participants!

We did try to make this hack a little different and based on the feedback, the games / Lightning challenges seemed to create a bit more interactivity on the day. Our goal was to focus on TIME as a currency. We wanted teams to be able to gain or lose time depending on how they engaged other teams AND if they completed certain challenges. The team's time was controlled through a central solution managed by the legendary Ashley Graham-Brown . As teams won or lost challenges, they could add time to their team OR deduct time from other teams! It was DIABOLICAL! and great fun.

These challenges were called LIGHTNING challenges! The teams participated in the following:

1. The wheel of Fudgery: Teams spun a wheel for time and then decided if they would Split or steal the time. Teams were BRUTAL with this and stole LOADS of time from each other.
2. The Lego Clock: Yes, we managed to get a load of grown adults to create Lego clocks! This was HILARIOUS!
3. Find WIll and Chris: YES we managed to get teams to participate in an adult game of hide and seek. The faster teams found us, the more tie they got allocated.

Ultimately it was just bonkers!

We had 10 "Pre-judges" who were interviewing the teams throughout the day to select 6 teams who would present at the end. We had roughly 27 teams in total so not everyone could present in the time allocated. This is what we call "The Master Chef Approach" where in the show, The judges go and taste everyone's food as they are cooking and then select the top 3 to present their dishes.

The Judging Panel then deliberated... FOR A LONG TIME and finally decided on 3 overall winners! The judging criteria are based on experience from previous hacks we have run and we know this is a great way to determine the top teams. The judges had a TOUGH job! I don't envy them at all!

THANK YOU

Before we tell you who the winners are we have to thank a lot of people for making this happen!

THE PARTICIPANTS: This day is for you, and ultimately you make this happen! SO THANK YOU for waking up, bringing your enthusiasm and having an AWESOME day with us! You have been such a fun group, and we greatly appreciate it! We have not seen people get stuck in the way you all did! What legends!

The Pre Judges: Andrew Bibby Joe G. Simon Owen Stephanie Stasey ???? Rebekka Aalbers-de Jong Damien Bird Angeliki Patsiavou Mike Hartley Stuart Ridout and Laurynas Merkelis - You all smashed it! I know how much work it was to get around to everyone and you did an AMAZING job! THANK YOU so very much!

Volunteers: Ashley Graham-Brown Jason Gardner Jason Earnshaw ?? Robert Meehan Michelle Wong & Ro: We really appreciate all the time and effort you put into helping us setup, Getting things transported, Buying tons of snacks for the day, Managing the time and the apps! You were AMAZING! We cant thank you enough!

Judges: Sara Lagerquist Carl Cookson Mats Necker Dona Sarkar Ryan Cunningham - THANK YOU so much for being the judges and reviewing the submissions in a LOT of detail! Brilliant! We know how tough this job is and you did Amazingly!

The Finalists

The Finalists got up on stage and did some AMAZING presentations. Our finalists this year are:

1. Kerv
2. CPS
3. Light Pink Team (TLP)Default Environment
4. Insert Name here / “Lucy and the Kitchen Sink”
5. Dr & The Medics

The Winners Are:

Well done to our Winners, You really smashed it and its amazing to see how you took a simple idea and made it real for the Judges! you should be incredibly proud. The Judges actually selected 2 winners this year and 1 runner up:

There was a Tie for first :

1. Team Default Environment: Kate Cuntapay Mahmoud Adam James Carroll Mike Griffiths , Sam Morris & Robert Emberson
2. Team “Insert Name here” / “Lucy and the Kitchen Sink”: Stuart West Ben Haynes David Wrigley Lucy Gibbons Joel Eastman Henry W.

The Runner up:

1. Team Light Pink (TLP): Mike Gowland Salvatore Napli Madeleine Harwood Harry Sharpes Andy James

Summary

Ultimately, It was amazing to see so many community folks working together to do amazing things! We love these hacks because they are not just about tech, but about bringing people from various backgrounds together to create fantastic, useful things. It's amazing what you can achieve as a team when you work together. We hope you had an EPIC day and that you made some friends and learnt something new.

On behalf of the hacking team, once again, a HUGE thanks to everyone involved! Thank you for getting on board the crazy train with us and remember to always be #GoodWeird !

From William Dorrington ?? and Chris Huntingford ??