Garage48 Hardware & Arts Riga

Overview

Agenda

Get Ready

It is time! The uber-popular Garage48 Hardware & Arts hackathon is coming to Latvia! On the 29th of September - 1st of October, the hands-on hackathon for makers and creators is happening for the first time ever in Riga, Latvia at the RTU Design Factory. Since the first hackathon was held in Tartu, Estonia in 2014, the Garage48 Hardware & Arts hackathons have positioned itself among creative doers from all over the world.

Whether you’re a product designer, UI / UX designer, electronics engineer, mechanics engineer, server programmer, mobile or web apps developer, marketer or a researcher; we welcome participants that can deliver working physical prototypes in just 48 hours! The goal for the weekend's boot-camp is to bring new concepts of physical innovations to life, so it's all about challenging yourself and thinking outside-of-the-box!

Garage48 Hardware & Arts Riga is organised in co-operation with EstLat Accelerate project and hosted by RTU Design Factory. You can join the event with an idea or by having amazing skill-sets! You do not need to have previous hackathon experience, but we expect a willingness to learn and positive attitude! During the hackathon we will take good care of you - you will be mentored by the best, fed the yummiest and introduced to cool new people!

To make the prototyping hackathon a success for you, we’re also going to organise 2 pre-events that will help you to prepare for the prototyping hackathon. You can join the pre-event in Estonia or Latvia, where you will be able to test your idea for the hackathon and ask questions regarding the event.

AGENDA for the PRE-EVENTS:

September 25, 2017

in Tartu at SPARK Hub (Narva mnt 3)

at 16:00-20:00
Register for the Tartu event here: https://beta.doodle.com/poll/av7r7naphy356pkh

September 26, 2017

in Riga at TechHub Riga (Sporta street 2, Riga)

at 16:00-20:00
Register for the Riga event here: https://beta.doodle.com/poll/iy2bz8thyvexrp7x

For any questions, please contact us via riga.hardware@garage48.org

JOIN also our Facebook event page, where we will post up-to-date news and information regarding the hackathon.

PS! There will be FREE buses leaving from Tallinn and Tartu to Riga and back for our participants!
Buses leaving from Tallinn to Riga
Date: 29th of Sept
When: 9.00 am
Where: from the G. Otsa street (between Estonian National Opera and Tallinn Secondary School of Science).
Back: on the 2nd of Oct, around 4:00 am in the morning

Buses leaving from Tartu to Riga
Date: 29th of Sept
When: 12:00 noon
Where: from the parking lot of Vanemuine and Ülikooli street.
Back: on the 2nd of Oct, around 1:00 am in the morning

You can REGISTER for the buses here: https://beta.doodle.com/poll/8iwvgxggrq5fbhvd

Friday, 29th of September
NB! Venue: International Exhibition Center, 2nd floor, Conference Hall (Ķīpsalas Street 8, Riga)

17:30 - Check-in, networking & snacks

18:00 - Opening remarks

18:30 - Pitching ideas in 90"

19:30 - Refreshment Break

19:50 - Pitching ideas in 90"

20:45 - Team formation

22:00 - Team work begins!

Saturday, 30th of September
Venue: RTU Design Factory

09:00 - Breakfast. Development continues

10:00 - Checkpoint #1

11:00 - Mentoring round starts

13:00 - Lunch

17.30 - Pitch drill introduction

18:00 - Checkpoint #2. Development continues...

19:00 - Dinner

20:00 - Development continues

Sunday, 1st of October
Venue: RTU Design Factory

09:00 - Breakfast. Development continues

09:30 - Checkpoint #3

10:00 - Pitch drill session #1

13:00 - Lunch

13:30 - Pitch drill session #2

15:30 - CLEANING

16:00 - Refreshment break

17:00 - Finale. Pitching session.

18:30 - Refreshment break and Jury takes the time to select winners

19:00 - Award ceremony & networking

21:00 - Buses leave for Tallinn

We'll start on Friday at 17:30 with opening doors. Please come on time, as the registration process might take some time. This time before the official opening is a great opportunity for getting to know the crowd and to network. See the agenda for further information.

WHAT TO BRING WITH YOU?

Positive attitude, open mind and lots of energy! Everything you need for a rapid product development. We will have equipment and materials on site, but to be sure we recommend you to bring your own stuff as well. You never know when you need something yourself or if you could help out another team. Sharing is caring! :)
The fact is that, if you build something what really works on Sunday evening, then we will not ask the bits and pieces back - you don't have to break your prototype, the team can take the it home and continue working on it. This does not apply though for more expensive things - you can not take an oscilloscope with you or set of tweezers etc.

Please take your:
laptop
3-5m power extension cord (as power might be on distance),
mobile phone
all chargers
Optional:
photo camera to take and share photos
mattress
sleeping bag and towel (in case you registered for sleepover at the venue)
credit cards for domain registration
business cards (if you have any)

PITCHING IDEAS

Ideas are presented based on "elevator-pitch" method within 90 seconds. Event host and audience can ask 1 to 3 short questions.
You can prepare 1 (one) PDF slide to support your pitch. You should send the slide by Friday noon (29.09), at the e-mail riga.hardware@garage48.org (Subject: name of your project).

Consider following key points:

- Describe briefly your background (10 sec)

- What is the name of the idea (5 sec)

- What's the idea all about? What is the problem your idea solves? Target user count and description (30 sec)

- Technical solution and if there is a revenue model (in case of non-profit idea, how the maintenance and further development costs will be covered?) (30 sec)

- Minimum viable product and plan for 48 hours. Who do you need for the team? (20 sec)

NB! Practice your pitch to your friends or family before you present! 90 seconds goes really fast!

FORMING TEAMS

After pitching is over, we will put all the ideas on the wall. Every participant will choose their favourite idea and this is how teams will be formed. Usually 16 to 18 best ideas will get enough interested people to get the "green light" for the implementation.
Average team has about 5 to 7 people and the team should be "balanced" - covering all required roles like necessary engineers, designer, a project manager (team lead/visionary), and marketer in order to get the product/service ready in 48 hours! Minimum size for a team is 4 people and max is 8 people.
If some ideas get too few people or not balanced teams (probably unable to build the service), the idea will be dumped. Those people should choose another idea/team.

WORKING IN TEAMS

After forming the teams, organizers will give a room/space for every team for the weekend. You should start by dividing roles, setting the product vision, customer journey and start working right away.
It is very important that you have a project manager (team lead) in the team - one of his tasks is to keep the focus of the team, one eye on the clock and the other on the team progress. 48 hours is really a short time.
Food and drinks. We provide breakfast, lunch and dinner on Saturday and Sunday. So, you could focus on work and building your product.

MENTORS

We have arranged mentors to work with the teams throughout the weekend. Some of them are more technical, some more business savvy. Be open and ask for their advice and contacts.
Please wear your name badge during the whole event, this will help to encourage networking and gets you inside through security guards. Otherwise be open, get to know new people, share your ideas and give ideas/feedback to other teams.

MOST IMPORTANT - have fun!

#G48AH #G48RIGA

Garage48 Hardware & Arts Riga

#G48AH #G48RIGA

THE SUPERSTARS
The Mentors

Organizers

The Program is brought to you by:

Event sponsors:

#G48AH #G48RIGA

THE SUPERSTARSThe Mentors

Organizers

The Program is brought to you by:

Event sponsors:

THE SUPERSTARS
The Mentors