List of hackathons in Renfrewshire, United Kingdom in 2015

*TASTY FOOD  *DELICIOUS DRINKS  *AWESOME PRIZES  *MENTORS  *PEERS Interested in Finance?  Interested in Tech?  Keen to meet your future co-founders and disrupt the finance industry? Come along to our FinTech-themed weekend hackathon.  You’ll be fed, watered, (hugged, if absolutely necessary), and sheltered from the elements, while you pitch your ideas, attract skilled team-mates, design your solution, build a working prototype and present to a select panel of judges. Our event aims to have the right mix of developers, designers, data lovers and daring-doers (hustlers fueled with wild passion and sheer determination).  This hackathon will suit those who enjoy designing or building software products, making sense of and manipulating data, and using business savvy. It will be intense (there might be tears) but it will be fun.  There will be friends to be made and prizes to be won. And who knows, perhaps there will be the birth of the next billion-dollar (sorry, pound) startup to come out of Scotland. What sort of ideas should be pitched / fit within the FinTech theme? Product ideas could cover the following areas plus much more: Financial inclusion: products for with the unbanked Online rewards: make these relevant and simplify signups Financial education/literacy: tool to enhance knowledge and skills Personal finance: tools to make financial mgnt easier Hyperlocal transactions: helping small businesses and retailers improve digital payments Cyber-security Blockchain Alternative lending Plus lots more The finance industry may have been resistant to the rapid, technology-driven changes that have turned other industries upside-down and inside out, but it can’t afford to be that anymore. Every area of financial services is being disrupted by new players in the digital space and this could change the way that we, as customers, live our lives and do business. What changes would you like to see in the finance industry?  Can you think of processes that could be made more efficient, secure, transparent and inexpensive? These links offer information about how tech is changing financial services and may help you come up with ideas that you’d like to work on or pitch at our hackathon event. Disrupting traditional finance: https://mathewsvincent.wordpress.com/2015/11/09/fintech-disrupting-traditional-financial-services/ What do the 17 hottest financial tech companies in Britain do? http://uk.businessinsider.com/17-hottest-fintech-companies-in-britain-2015-6 More examples of companies that are helping to reshape the finance industry: http://www.fintechinnovators.com/ “‘the biggest areas of FinTech investment for top VCs since 2007 are the following: payments, personal finance management, lending, and bitcoin.” http://uk.businessinsider.com/these-2-simple-slides-show-just-how-hot-fintech-is-right-now-2015-5 Slides from a recent financial technology conference in Scotland: http://www.slideshare.net/RayBugg/fintech-2015-edinburgh What do the 25 top financial tech companies in the world do? http://raconteur.net/technology/25-fintech-companies-set-for-stardom Disrupting finance industry using blockchain tech: http://www.economistinsights.com/technology-innovation/analysis/money-no-middleman/tab/1 Why you should care about blockchain: http://recode.net/2015/07/05/forget-bitcoin-what-is-the-blockchain-and-why-should-you-care/ Why should you as a designer/developer/marketer participate? To make the world a more efficient, easy and exciting place to navigate.  FinTech could change the way we live our lives and do business.  Other reasons to participate are: To use the skills that you don’t get to show off at your current day job To meet your future co-founders for the billion pound startup you may wind up creating To meet potential hirers To meet more of your peers, make like-minded friends and professional acquaintances To gain startup experience To add a new project to your portfolio To win a cool prize and recognition for your effort To surprise yourself at how much you can achieve in 48hours! More details: http://infinitekind.com/fintech-hackathon-nov-2015 (Ticket prices will cover catering and/or prizes).  To enquire about DISCOUNTS on ticket prices email bela@infinitekind.com

Get ready for the second annual Edinburgh Sustainability Jam! This 48 hour intensive hackathon (or 'Jam') is aimed at bringing together people from all backgrounds to solve social, economic and environmental issues of our world. Come participate for a chance to engage with the local and global community and create an innovative solution to a global issue. The 2014 Jam with 35 enthusiastic participants won the 'Best Student Initiative' award at the Edinburgh Sustainability Awards, as well as the 'Innovation for Engagement' award from the National Union of Students, so come along for an even bigger and better event this year! The event will start on 4.30pm Friday 30th Oct till 5pm Sunday 1st November, and will run alongside dozens of Jams around the world from Cairo to Jakarta to Miami to Sao Paulo and Edinburgh! Due to high demand we only have limited spaces, so register as quickly as possible and we will get back to you after a simple selection process. The Jam is open to all (students and staff from all institutions, and non-students), you do not need to be a particular levle, an expert or student etc. The Jam is for all to share together! There will be a chance for academics, practitioners, teachers or anyone who is generally interested in the Jam to observe it. If you wish to observe the Jam sessions and/or join in just for the opening/closing and workshop sessions you may reserve a ticket and free to join on those occassions. If you wish to find out more about the innovative learning and sustainability agenda that is being promoted through the Jam, do contact us using the email below. Programme Friday (4:30pm - 10pm) - The Secret Theme is released and you will form teams and generate ideas to solve specific issues. From 7pm the 'official' programme of day will end and you will be free to work in your groups (with support available). Saturday (10am - 7pm) - There will be a design & data workshop, some talks, and activities planned during the day, and you will have plenty of time to work as a group to develop your team ideas with specialist mentors (designers/engineers, consultants, academics, business people, scientists etc.). We will also be streaming the Rugby World Cup live on the big screen + will end in time for you to dress up for Halloween! Sunday (10am - 5pm) - We will start our guided programme at 12pm with a presentation skills workshop, after which you will finalise your ideas into a short presentation and deliver it to a panel of judges for feedback.* There will be plenty of comfort breaks, lunch breaks and free time to network/mingle/chat/roam; the programme is very flexible and designed to maximise creativity and freedom. You are also free to craft your own plan with plenty of time to develop your ideas, so don't worry about it being too intensive. There will be support and helping hands throughout the Jam. Judges featuring on the panel: Lesley McAra (Edinburgh University, Vice Principal Community Engagement); George Tarvit (Keep Scotland Beautiful, Climate Change and Sustainability Manager); Andy Kerr (Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation, Director) For any questions or special arrangements or to find out more please contact us by emailing netimpactedinburgh@gmail.com.   The Edinburgh Sustainability Jam is organised by the student group Net Impact Edinburgh, and co-organised/sponsored by Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation (ECCI); Department for Social Responsibility and Sustainability (SRS); Innovative Learning Week (ILW); Global Environment and Society Academy (GESA). (click logos to find out about each)       * For teams that wish to pursue their ideas in the longer term after the Jam, we have planned for support through more foccused Net Impact Edinburgh events aimed at developing the ideas as well as potential resources and support from co-organisers. For example, look out for us during the winter and Innovative Learning Week, but more on that during and after the Jam...

*NB to participate in this event you must register as a volunteer (please see below, not as scary as it sounds!)     Rainforests are being cut down at the rate of 100 acres per minute! Half of the world’s plastic goes into products that are used only once! In a recent recycling challenge only 4% of students managed to correctly place all items in the correct landfill and recycling waste bins!   Think these facts are shocking? Want to collectively, creatively and collaboratively explore these issues further?   The Recycle Hack will provide a platform to visualise and collaborate on producing solutions to our waste consumption problem. Ultimately, we want to end up with a number of practical yet creative, real-life solutions, which with your assistance, we can catalyse.   Nurturing a safe but disruptive platform we invite students from across Glasgow's creative student community to attend the Hack, where we hope to creatively, collaboratively and practically tackle issues in an informal environment.   Hacking is a great way of organically and collaboratively tackling problems, creating interventions, which help dissipate an issue. Small teams can tackle tough problems in a supportive community of peers and mentors. In bringing together a mix of participants with a mix of skills we hope to solve existing problems in new ways.    Post Recycle Hack The collective learnings which come out of the event will lay the foundations for the recycling strand of our project. R A D I A L is about peer to peer learning and we invite the Hackers to become spheres of influence and pass the learning on. While we don't know exactly what the outcomes will be we hope that collectively you will want to communicate that learning in various forms (with creative freedom to do this in any way you want)!    The idea is that those involved in the Hack will then go on to spread the positive waste-less messages and learnings which come out of the Hack, within your households peerr groups and social networks. Therefore, we ask that if you want to attend the Hack you commit to carrying out at least one conversation as a result of what you learned, be it even in your own household! To help us coordinate the visits please register here as a volunteer and tick Hackathon Helper when prompted. No other commitment is required from you although if there are other positions you are interesed in please let us know! You can read more about the roles and benefits.