Kelly Sikkema Unsplash
We heard your feedback, and we’re trialling a few things that are a bit new.
Liz, Laura, Liviu and Eliot have some new team members (Weller, Jonathon, Katrina and Yan) this year and some big changes. We're really excited to see how it all works out and (as always) we will be keen to have feedback from you at the end of the hack!
1. We are forming a partnership with Random Hacks of Kindness Sydney
This year we will have a judge on our jury from Random Hacks of Kindness who will be assessing whether some projects can go into the Random Hacks of Kindness cycle (as well as a coder). If you’re not familiar, RHoK is 2 times a year and a project can (and often does) go through the 2 day hack multiple times before moving on.
Let me explain why we’re doing this - we are attempting to solve a really long term problem. A continuous piece of feedback we get is that there is no space to continue project work after the hack. We get it. Life happens, people drop out of projects, and sometimes good intentions don’t work out. Random Hacks is able to put these problems into their cycle and bring other hackers into the group. This could ensure long term viability for some of the problems.
We have chosen Random Hacks of Kindness both because it is run by people we trust (Liz's brother is an organiser) and because we share the same ethos. Random Hacks has long been promoting non profit open source hackathons just as HealthHack has been since its inception. HealthHack has the unique proposition of getting problem owners ready to hack even though a hackathon might not be on their radar. HealthHack has always been more experimental because we are about helping problem owners who might not be ready for a RHoK without the HealthHack to give them an idea of how a hackathon might help them out. We’re excited for the results and the next RHoK hopefully will have some HealthHack problems going through to the next stage.
If you’re a super keen string bean, and you want to do RHoK as well as HealthHack, the team forming night for the next RHoK is November 15 and you can RVSP on Meetup. The Summer RHoK is on November 25 which is also a Meetup RVSP.
2. We are trialling an express format
Noticed that HealthHack is a bit shorter than last year? Well the new format is an attempt to see what we can achieve in a day. We realise a lot of people are not able to give up an entire weekend but really want to join in and we’ve seen other hacks give this a try. We want you to return to work/study on Monday not completely burned out by a hackathon and we think this is important. We’re trying to pack a lot in and have poured a lot of effort into supporting you all as much as possible this year.
3. Cicada Innovations is going to teach you how to pitch
We are INCREDIBLY fortunate to have Cicada Innovations on board with us this year to run a pitch workshop for a member of your team that will give the final pitch to the judges. If you don’t know, Cicada run an incredible Medical Device Innovation Program delivered with NSW Health. Ignition CORE - Cicada’s course for healthcare entrepreneurs IS FREE. OF. CHARGE. I know right? I was completely shocked. Applications for Ignition CORE close November 22 and there’s one more information night after HealthHack on November 7 at Cicada, which you can register for on Eventbrite.
Cicada are also giving away 1 month incubation at Cicada Innovations in our Accelerator Hub (valued at $500). Have I not already convinced you these are incredible people? This is a great opportunity, do not miss out.