38 people, 6 teams, 5 cities,24h, no sleep, lots of fun - mindits Hack <2021>.
At the end of last week, we had one of our favorite events, the mindit.io hackathon.
Like we stated in our previous blog post, this year, we wanted something different. We wanted to impact one of the world's problems - education, from a financial, tech, crypto, school, or even environmental perspective.
Quick note: this blog post is going to be a bit biased. I am known to measure a project based on its impact and vibe. My colleagues, those who spent 24h coding and experimented with technology, will probably want to have some words with me afterward.
I am in awe, honestly. Their drive, creativity, and the way they are always up to date with technology are just inspiring. For that, we will continue our hackathon blog series with some sneak peeks into their projects. It's mind blowing. I promise you this.
Now, though, I will relive last weekend and look at the impact it had on me.
It was nostalgic, somehow. After almost one year of pandemic, with mindit.io offices almost empty most of the time, last Saturday was bliss.
Being it from the office or home at 10 am, everybody started coding. Or maybe not quite everybody. As Victor, one of our colleagues, said in his team's presentation, "In the last 22 hours, Matei looked at the lightbulb, and I forgot to take Ioana and Daniel out for a smoke (they were remote), but I did take them with me in my pocket, where my phone was connected to the call". Sounds intense, doesn't it?
It was energizing. Since we grew quite a lot during the past year, we have colleagues who never saw one another. Witnessing how they bonded, the way they created, even though that was the first time they (physically) met - it moved me. It reminded me why the hackathon is so important for us here at mindit.io.
Guided by the desire for impact, our common passion for technology, by our need to collaborate, we gather for 24h and do what we love most. We create. Together.
It was inspirational. We touched education using blockchain tech or playing with some OCR. We touched education from schools to sexual education and lifelong learning. We dared to dream and started implementing our dreams.
It was fun.
Andrada also told us, "we drank, we laughed, and we coded together (except me… ofc, I was too busy pinging my colleagues for pictures!)". And we do have some great photos here!
As we started our week, a usual Monday morning, getting ready to read our e-mails, six business plans full of innovation, impact, and top-notch technology were waiting for us.
It's incredible what a boost of energy a bit of innovation can bring.
For me, it was not about who is going to win but about how we can change the world for the better, solely by using our passions and collaborating. For that matter, we are all winners right now.
Stay tuned for our following articles, as we will dive more into each project.
