As the Garage48 team has just arrived back from one of our traditional get-togethers to gather energy and inspiration, it is a good time to share the plans we have for the upcoming season. The spirit of Garage48 lies in the people - our team who tirelessly grab on to cool ideas and make them happen, our mentors whose experience put in one person would make them a one of a kind “startup hero” and our community who keep on coming to our events with a will to get shit done and who will along the way make the world a little bit of a better place. In the coming season we want to make an even bigger effort to bring this community closer together. We want to support the pay-it-forward attitude in all the countries that we work in, we want to bring more people closer to the entrepreneurial mindset and we want to create events that leave you with lasting ideas (and maybe great products).
In the coming half a year we are AGAIN putting the hackathon format to the test - what is it that can come out of 48 hours of hacking? It is not only a bunch of developers getting together to write code, we want to show with our every event that hackathons are about solving real-world problems. That is why we are encouraging not only our seasoned community members but everyone with a fresh and broad mind - find the event that interests you the most and sign up.
There is a certain kind of magic that occurs when a group of people come together to solve a problem in a finite amount of time. In a sense, a hackathon is like going through the entire startup process, from ideation to execution, but in a highly-compressed timescale. It's about coming together as a team and creating something new—whether it's a new application, a new product or a new feature. It’s also about making long-term relationships with like-minded individuals and becoming part of a bigger community. Above all, one thing is certain when the Garage48 bunch gets together - we always have fun!
The important part of Garage48 - having FUN!
Want to join the magic? Check out this season's events below:
Our 1-day hackathon format - Idea Garage - has proven very fruitful for idea generation in different fields and developing and validating the technical concept of the idea. We are kicking off the season with two Idea Garage events in September. One of them - “Idea garage: Estonian Wellbeing 2017” - is focused on proposing ideas for developing the Estonian welfare services and the other “Idea Garage: Path to Development 2.0” has the main goal to bring technological processes to the global development. Also, connected to the EU presidency, together with Estonian Ministry of Justice, CIVITTA Estonia and Estonian Information System Authority we are organising a 2-day “Idea Garage: e-Justice.” We want to show that by including the know-how of IT specialists in the very early stage of problem-solving in any field can make great things happen.
We will also carry on hacking physical things in the upcoming season. The legendary Hardware and Arts is happening in Riga for the first time. We are expecting the hardware and software guys to join forces to build working prototypes that you can touch, feel and see in real life, added with some digital flavour of course. But we don’t stop there - this autumn we will bring together the golden hands and bright minds to focus on building real things from wood and solving challenges in the wood and furniture industry at the "Garage48 Wood". Also, the "Garage48 Experiences and Expositions" will help to build prototypes of interactive experiences for museums, schools and science centres to explain different phenomenons.
Our queen of physical hackathons: Anu
Our traditional hackathon events are tackling big issues this season. In October in Tallinn, "Garage48 Circular Economy", is devoted to finding eco-innovative solutions - action towards the sustainable future and growth. Environmental problems are complex and integrated to everyday production and consumption patterns and value chains. So the solutions have to be “out of the box” for the already developed patterns to change. The hackathon awaits big hearts and bright ideas to work together. In November when Estonia is hosting the European Space Week, we will organise (already the second) hackathon on space technologies - "Garage48 SpaceTech: Integrated Applications". The hack taking place in Tartu wants to bring more attention to the space technologies and available satellite data and explore the possible solutions beneficial to the end user.
Garage48 mentors ready to tackle the big issues
We will also carry on our great partnership with the Estonian Development Fund. The upcoming events in Georgia are focused on bringing the Garage48 concept to the regional cities - 2 Student Startup Camps will take place in Kutaisi and Batumi and a hackathon in Batumi will finish this year’s events in Georgia. The project will also continue in Ukraine - in November we are organising a cyber security themed hackathon in a new city Kharkiv. We are also very happy that our project proposals for Moldova and Belarus have been approved, so stay tuned for the events to be announced soon.
You can keep an eye on the updated info on all the events here: http://garage48.org/events Also follow us on Facebook and Twitter
As the summer came and went, we were also cooking some other exciting things. During the 7 years, Garage48 hackathons have brought entrepreneurial energy to Estonia, Eastern Europe and even further, Oman and Kenya to name a few. Now we see the need to bring our proven hackathon formats and other innovation tools to established businesses. Our new brand ELEVATE by Garage48 will bring ideation sessions, hackathons, design sprints and other agile development formats to companies who wish to excel at innovation through high-energy teamwork, experimenting and prototyping. If you’d like to learn more, go to www.g48elevate.com or write to elevate@g48elevate.com and book an intro meeting!
Liis, the head of ELEVATE, flying off to new heights :)
As the autumn leaves start to fly around and temperatures start to drop, come see us in the best (and very warm) co-working space in Tallinn - LIFT99, born out of the legendary Garage48 HUB. Check out the event calendar for different meetups and seminars to mix and mingle with the startup minded folks based in Tallinn.
Idea Garage held in LIFT99
And one more thing, if you are as excited about the upcoming season as we are and want to help out, then join our volunteer program. The #startupsquad is looking for ambitious individuals looking to test their skills.
Join the open event on 14th Sept to get more information: https://www.facebook.com/events/370082326745532/
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Hope to see you all sooner or later participating, mentoring, volunteering at our events!
Garage48 team
PS If you have any questions/suggestions/comments, please write to us at info@garage48.org
Pictures in the article are from the Garage48 summer days taken by the
marvellous Maido Parv :)