More than 1,000 participants, 45,000 square meters of space, and 400 gigabits of Internet – such was the Proffstore Hackathon, held at the Art Factory Platform creative cluster in Kyiv on December 12-13. For 24 hours, developers worked without rest on the implementation of their most insane ideas, and listened to tips from mentors and experts in marketing, design, and development of IT technologies. And, of course, competed for the title of the nation’s best hackathon.
The admission was free, and the event’s motto was FEEL FREEDOM. “We wanted to create an atmosphere of freedom, so did not limit the participants’ choices. They had an opportunity to find a lot of interesting people, talk and relax,” technical organizer of the hackathon and CEO of Hackraft Oleksandr Shalakhin said.
In these two days, 644 programmers created 108 projects. It has propelled the Proffstore Hackathon to Ukraine’s Book of Records as the largest hackathon in Europe. “Two months ago, when we decided to hold the Proffstore Hackathon, we dared to hold the biggest hackathon in Ukraine, then our ambitions grew to Europe’s largest, or even the world’s. We understood that we had very little time left. And when I was opening this event, I did not believe that we could do it. We had many problems. But we still succeeded,” Proffstore’s CEO Vladyslav Kryveshko told us.
The projects developed during the hackathon went through three stages of testing, jury inspection, and pitch session (the final design presentation before a jury). “It was very difficult to control as many as 108 projects. If they all held a presentation, it would have taken two days,” technical organizer Maria Prokhorova explained.
On the first day, participants split into teams and were tested for ideas. After another six hours, it was checked whether teams were created and how well they worked. The next day, the organizers checked on the teams’ achievements. Therefore, only 28 projects reached the final pitch session. “Usually hackathons are small, so everyone can present their project. We did not have this luxury. So we prepared with this in mind, wrote a special program to monitor the whole process, including which table what team works at, what it does, and how complete the project is at some stage,” Shalakhin said.
Photo by Ruslan KANIUKA, The Day
Among designs presented at the event, we took notice of a new stimulant which replaces coffee or sleep, a social jukebox, a system that allows one to anonymously report crime, and even an application that helps the user to decide what to do.
For their work, the teams received prizes and the titles of the Best Web Solution and the Best Mobile Application. In addition, they have got a chance to speak at the “InnoTech Ukraine” national forum of innovative technologies, which will take place next year, enter the Start-Up Alley, obtain mentoring support from one of Ukraine’s largest business incubators WannaBiz and legal Ukrainian online cinema MEGOGO. Also, three teams have won a month of free access to new coworking Platform.
The jury recognized 13-year-old Kyivan lyceum student Mykhailo Mykolyshyn’s application as the best start-up. Called Great Grade, it is a service through which students can contact teachers online, receive various homework assignments and get them marked. “Our school has an online progress book service, but it is very inconvenient. I am tired of using it myself. I decided that now I had the opportunity to remake this progress book the way I liked it. And we did it,” he said. Besides Mykolyshyn, the work on the application involved a developer from Zaporizhia and two 11-graders from Kyiv. “I came here with the idea alone, and we could not find a team for the first five hours. Initially, it was Hennadii from Zaporizhia who got interested, then I remembered that I had two friends, Bohdan and Yevhen, who work in a coworking nearby. They are at grade 11 and already have a startup of their own,” Mykolyshyn said. The programmers’ original plan called just for a mobile application, but they ultimately even managed to develop a web project in 24 hours of the event.
In the future, the team will work together as well. “These developers will remain in the team. Besides, we will perhaps select a back-end developer,” the boy added.
The organizers also do not plan to stop there, as they promise to organize in Ukraine the world’s largest hackathon and get into the Guinness Book of Records. “The limit previously stood at 1,000 developers. However, this fall, a hackathon held in Spain gathered 6,700 participants,” Shalakhin explained. He added that many IT companies wanted to support such events now. “They do so because there is an opportunity to find people and ideas here that can organize a new IT company that will create jobs and do something that will bring money by itself, rather than work in outsourcing,” he concluded.
