Hack Days: The Days of the Week Too Cool to be on a Regular Calendar

What would you call a day packed with 100 developers, pop and pizza, six hours of straight coding, and competitive pressure that was more pungent than the salty sweat beads on the devs’ foreheads? …Ok, while YOU would probably call that the best party you’ve ever heard of, we call that a Hack Days event. But you were close—it FELT like a party!

HackOTT (the Ottawa installation of Hack Days) was held Saturday, February 26 in Ottawa, and brought together almost 100 developers at the Shopify offices downtown.  Momentous company Zip.ca was happy to be among the other providers of pre-selected APIs for the event (joining the likes of fellow contributing companies Yellow Pages Group, Idée Inc, Pretzil and Shopify),* and to even have a Zip Picks award: http://selectstartstudios.com/blog/hackott/

Working in teams or solo, the competing developers used these APIs to create whatever brilliant, beautiful application they could, within a 6 hour time limit. At the end of that stretch of straight coding, the competitors produced a total of 15 apps, which were then presented to the panel of judges & put to the test in front of the event’s attendees. For a quick glance, click here: http://www.startupottawa.com/?p=3173

Almost 2 months later, we’re revved for the next event, happening this weekend…Hack Waterloo! (You guessed it, it’s in Waterloo). Zip.ca is once again providing our API for the event, as well as prizes for the craftiest coders in southern Ontario.

With Hack Waterloo carrying us into the sunnier days, you’d think that computer keyboards would increasingly grow dust as the sun appeared more frequently. Well don’t hold your breath – there are many more reasons to keep those keys glossy and that screen clean, and we’re planning to be at all of them!  …are YOU?!

If you didn’t scream “YES!!!” to the above, you should read this: http://mercurygrove.com/2011/03/does-your-company-do-hackdays-it-should/

We are excited for this weekend’s turn outs, and looking forward to becoming regular contributors and sponsors for these events. Stay tuned!

*Special thanks to the Shopify team for hosting HackOTT, and to Leila Boujnane and Corey Reid, the masterminds behind HackDays.