HackVAN: Everything you need to know
HackVAN is tomorrow and I hope you are as excited about seeing us as we are about seeing you! Got questions? We have answers. But first: the Meet and Greet this evening Friday August 19:
HackVAN Meet & Greet Details:
- When: Friday August 19, 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM
- Where: The Irish Heather: 210 Carrall Street in Gastown
- What: Beers, chips, snacks, cheers.
Come and meet API providers, developers and your hacking community.
Tomorrow we will spend the entire day at the Mozilla offices starting at 9 AM.
- Where: Mozilla Vancouver, 163 West Hastings Street, Suite 200- Vancouver
- Time: 9 AM to 6 PM
- Registration: we are sold out!
HackVAN is a disposable cups free event! So that means you will need to bring your portable mug, thermos or whatever! If you don’t have one, well you still have time to head to the store and get yourself a fancy one. Make sure you can use it for both cold beverages and hot ones and you will be set for the next decade! Help us reduce and reuse! And now on to what you really have been waiting for.
HackVAN Schedule:
- 9:00 – Breakfast and introductions: Meet your HackVAN organizers and all the developers, get acquainted with the space + final schedule + grab a breakfast of champions!
- 9:30 – API presentation: learn about the APIs available. Each API provider will have 5 minutes to introduce their API, discuss its salient features and get you excited about using it.
- 10:15 – Open Planning: come up with hacking idea and build a team. This is a white board exercise: if you have an idea that you would like to work on, just puts its name down on the white board; if you are looking to build a team, identify yourself to other developers with the skill sets that you need. If you are looking for ideas, identify yourself to other developers as well.
- 10:30 – Hacking setup and start. You claim a little spot of the office with your team or by yourself and start working on your project. All the API providers will be on hand the entire day to provide support.
- Noon – Lunch
- 1:00 – Hacking
- 5:00 – Application presentation – 3 minutes for each presenter!
- 6:00 – Judging and prizes
- 6:30 – Off to nearby pub for celebrations!
Am I allowed to use third party APIs (APIs not provided via HackVAN) to build my application?
Yes. But your usage of the third party APIs needs to be in addition to the HackVAN APIs. Also keep in mind that judging is partially based on utilization of the provided APIs, though, so their use should be prominent. So you can use any API you wish to use during HackVAN as long as you use at least one of the provided APIs.
What if I don’t know anyone when I get to HackVAN or if I don’t have any ideas as to what to build?
Oh that’s an easy one: if you don’t know anyone, that will last about 10 seconds once you join us. Seriously. And as to ideas: not to worry, there will be plenty to choose from. The better question: will you have enough time to build your application and showcase it to the judges at the end of the day. We will do our best to connect you to other developers. Have a look at the API provided, the API gallery for each provider and do some research ahead of time on the APIs and what other developers have previously built.
What if I have an idea and a team already?
That’s a great start. Bring your team. Bring your idea. And get working as soon as you get to HackVAN. Perhaps we will be able to witness the birth of your startup right then and there!
How large can my team be?
Teams can be as large or as small as you like. Solo is okay, too. A 2-3 people team is ideal typically.
Now I love hacking events but what do I win if I build the best application ever?
HackVAN is not just all guts. There is glory and prizes!
What to bring:
- Your Guestlist receipt. You don’t need to print it, an email you can show us is fine. HackVAN is sold out.
- Your laptop.
- Your mobile device if you are developing a mobile app.
- Cables, chargers and connectors for any of the above.
- A power bar – there are never enough power bars to go around!
- Your data stick if you have one – could come in handy if our network gets overloaded
- Your sense of humor and your ability to get along with everyone while in tight quarters!
- Your portable coffee cup – we try to keep disposables to a minimum in our events.
What we will provide:
- APIs, API support
- Breakfast
- Lunch
- Coffee, tea, juice, pop
- Snacks and beers at beer o’clock
- Wireless internet access
- A large LCD display for presentations, with HDMI and SVGA input (we recommend you bring your own connectors, but we will have some handy as well)
- Smiles!
- An awesome developer community!
If I have questions whom do I get in touch with?
You can drop us an email anytime with any question. We are happy to help. You can call me directly 416 624 7540.
HackVAN is made possible by our awesome sponsors: Context.IO, Freshbooks, Grow 2011, Mozilla, TinEye, Twilio, YellowAPI.
