{"id":82717,"date":"2016-03-14T20:34:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-14T21:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/resourcework2.devstudio.work\/?p=82717"},"modified":"2024-11-29T13:58:55","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T13:58:55","slug":"protohack-hackathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/resourcework2.devstudio.work\/?p=82717","title":{"rendered":"Hacking our way to higher ground"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Editor’s note:<\/strong> Our March 17 newsletter linked to this post in error, instead of “First Nations: old thinking on resources a non-starter<\/a>“. We apologize for the confusion.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

 <\/em>“Code-free hackers”… lost interest already?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don’t despair. The hackathon I attended in Burnaby on March 12 was a code-free<\/em> hackathon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still not convinced? Fair enough, because the word hackathon has not quite jumped the confines of Silicon Valley to become a household word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To Wikipedia, a hackathon is<\/a> “an event in which computer programmers and others involved in software development and hardware development, including graphic designers, interface designers and project managers, collaborate intensively on software projects.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event I attended was a riff on this concept: the GreenCity Protohack<\/a>, a 12-hour competition where aspiring or established entrepreneurs, industry leaders, designers, developers and other players, come together to connect, collaborate, and create innovative solutions through code-free prototyping and pitching while gaining education and inspiration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are some participants taking a break during the event:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One incentive for these folks to get out of bed early on a Saturday morning was the chance to win $15,000 in patent protection, design-branding services, coworking space, and development work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Participants didn’t need to have coding experience. Anyone with an interest in the topic was welcomed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They broke up into a number of small groups and each group worked on fleshing out, critiquing, ground-truthing, stress-testing, coffee-drinking, stretching, and occasional shouts of what sounded like “Eureka!” (Ok, not the last one.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My role was to show up at the more civilized noon hour to discuss the mission of Resource Works<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preparing for this group, I decided the thing to talk about was one of my favourite topics \u2013 the strong bond that exists in British Columbia between responsible resource use and the high-tech innovation that is at the core of these modern pursuits. This<\/a> is a recent post we published on that very topic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(In case you hadn’t noticed, there is a bit of a cottage industry around fluffing up the myth that the natural resource sector is old fashioned, low tech, etc etc.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turned out I was right on the money, because most of the attendees proved, when I asked for a show of hands, to be from science backgrounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a photo of me with event organizer Vicki Li, who has done a remarkable and energetic job in a short time of bringing the protohack concept to the Lower Mainland:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The series continues March 19 in Ottawa. It is the result of a partnership between Natural Resources Canada<\/a> and San Francisco-based ProtoHack<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately for the Burnaby attendees, I was not the only speaker: immediately before me, attendees heard from Oscar Malpica (below), founder and CEO of Envisioning Labs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Oscar talked, among other things, about a project he is working on<\/a> that sets a 45-day fly-or-fail deadline on innovative new ventures. If a concept makes it past six weeks, the thinking goes, then it might have hope of moving into the early-stage arena. If not \u2013 hey, there’s always another new idea around the corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After my talk I stuck around and talked with a few of the groups arrayed around the co-work space at event venue, Spacekraft. Below, here I am again, this time with Hardeep and Sam. (Since either one of them could easily turn out to be my boss one day, obviously I was as polite as possible.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I’m not going to give away their billion-dollar brainchilds here, but in both cases they involved reducing the environmental impact of processes that ultimately are about staying warm and being able to have a hot meal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hackathon idea might be new, but it seems to draw from the ancient instincts of curiosity and competitiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’d be surprised if Hardeep, Sam and a lot of the other participants I met aren’t out there in the near future launching companies that combine innovation, sustainability, and real-world approaches to the natural products that humanity requires. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stewart Muir is executive director of the Resource Works Society.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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