We “hacked something out” – that was the Seibert Media Hackathon 2023

When a person tells you they’ve run a marathon, there’s no question about the outstanding achievement. After all, many of us can hardly imagine what it means to walk non-stop, for hours, to complete 42.195 kilometers. There is a lot of recognition, respect and maybe even a little reverence.

With our hackathon, which we held in March 2023, it is actually no different – only that it is usually a brain teaser. We may not have jogged a two-digit number of kilometers, but as a company we dedicated ourselves 24 hours a day and focused on various innovative projects. In a classic hackathon, new software ideas are explored and, at the end, a first prototype is developed – but working on other, unconventional ideas is also welcome at Seibert Media.

For 24 hours in the hackathon camp!

After our hackathon 2022 under the motto “Let’s get Cloud!” stood, we went to the hackathon camp this year. There we met some employees of our Norwegian partner Kantega, who also wanted to “hack out” something. Equipped with a camp guide, the scouts then went into the innovation wilderness!

The starting gun was fired on March 23 at 1 p.m. – the various groups got to work on their respective projects. Everyone then had 24 hours to work on their idea and ideally even complete it. There was still life in the camp until late at night. The next day we all got together again at the hackathon camp at 1 p.m. to present our results to each other in short final pitches.

But that’s not all: Of course, there was a vote afterwards, followed by an award ceremony, in which all participants could vote for the best and/or most innovative project. But you won’t find out which cool result has won until the end of the post! 😉

To give you an idea of ​​what the campfire conversations were about and what people tirelessly worked on, we present a few of the hackathon projects in more detail – from various app ideas for the Atlassian Cloud to shooting onboarding videos for ours Newbies to cool, new training concepts (and much more) everything was there. We concentrate on the projects that were particularly well received by the college – let’s go!

Pimp my LuFo: Analog hacking during our clean-up campaign

The first project that we would like to present to you is actually only remotely related to software – but it affects the environment in which our colleagues work on cool software solutions: Under the motto “Pimp my LuFo” a hackathon group conceded our office in the LuisenForum on a grand scale and also gave it a new coat of paint in some places. Our former reception area now shines in a chic shade of purple and will serve as an additional team space in the future. In addition, many desks were rearranged and some remote workstations were created. The team has literally tackled the topic of “modern work” and we are delighted with the beautiful result!

Eureka! Digital innovations in the Atlassian ecosystem

But we didn’t miss out on classic, digital hacking either. This resulted in several product prototypes, such as “Janny” or “SMart Cards”. Since these two product ideas are currently being further developed, we don’t want to tell you too much about them just yet. But what we can tell you: “Janny” will hopefully soon not only help us to evaluate new product ideas and features. And “SMart Cards” should not only support onboarding, but also help employees in everyday life. Stay tuned, we will of course let you know as soon as these hackathon results become public!

However, one product has already made it into the Atlassian marketplace, namely “ReplyGenius”! This app for Jira uses artificial intelligence to create clever answer suggestions so that communication in Jira tickets can be even faster and more precise.

Stickers, Sticka, Stickathon! Our sticker forge

It continues with an extraordinarily creative group of the hackathon: Because behind the working title “Sticker, Sticka, Stickathon” hides – as the name suggests – a design project around cool stickers in the Seibert Media style.

To this end, people from design and other fields came together in a motley group and first of all set off to look for inspiration. Nothing easier than that! After all, every corner of our office is teeming with fun decorations (like inflatable flamingos) or internal jokes (in the form of homemade posters).

After everyone had agreed on a selection of motifs and ideas, it was down to business. All eyes were focused on the screens, caffeine-trembling hands pushing pixel by pixel into place. Tiredness set in early in the evening, but the shared vision motivated everyone involved to persevere until 11 p.m. Some die-hards even stayed until 1am to bring the designs to life.

The next morning there was still time for fine-tuning. And the result is really good! A whopping 35 stickers were completed, earning the group the podium and second place! But who took first place?

Security meets convenience: Our intelligent lockers

And most of the votes for the best hackathon project went to… “Locker” (caution: working title)! These are self-made lockers in the office that our employees can book flexibly with the help of an app and easily open and lock with their door system transponder. This locker system is z. B. super practical if you have something to do right after work and don’t want to carry your work laptop around with you.

At least that’s the theory – the actual practical implementation still needs some time. At the hackathon, the Locker Group first laid the necessary foundations for the infrastructure, the server, the electronics and the communication concept, etc. Based on this, a technical prototype was developed to advance software and hardware development. The finished “app” (web interface) with its special functions is then developed in a subsequent step, just as the lockers themselves still have to be built.

We are already looking forward to the fact that our valuables will soon be safely stowed away. Due to the temporary booking of the lockers, we don’t have to build up huge wall units in our offices either – in the morning you grab a specific locker, in the afternoon a colleague keeps something there and overnight another colleague’s laptop is stored in it.

After the hackathon is before the hackathon!

A colorful, imaginative and successful hackathon 2023 is coming to an end – we at Seibert Media are so convinced of this innovative format that it is already clear that a large number of Seibert Medians will come together again next year to work together to work on cool ideas.

Finally – and because we are a little bit proud of it – here is our hackathon in short, crisp numbers:

Are you curious about what projects we’ve been working on during the hackathons of the last few years? Then take a look here or browse our blog articles on previous hackathons – you can find them under “further information”.

Further information

Hackathon 2022 @ Seibert Media: Let’s get cloud!
24 hours of fun, hard work and crazyness: remote hackathons at Seibert Media
Remote Hackathon bei Seibert Media: to the moon and beyond
Hackathon at //SEIBERT/MEDIA: impressions, quotes and insights