We'll start on Friday (24th March)  at 18:15 with opening doors. Please come on time, as the registration process might take some time. This time before the official opening is a great opportunity for getting to know the crowd and to network. See the agenda for further information.

WHAT TO BRING WITH YOU?

Positive attitude, open mind and lots of energy! Everything you need for a rapid product development.

Please take your:

laptop

3-5m power extension cord (as power might be on distance)

mobile phone

all chargers

Optional:

photo camera to take and share photos

mattress

sleeping bag and towel (in case you would like to stay overnight)

credit cards for domain registration

business cards (if you have any)

PITCHING IDEAS

Ideas are presented based on "elevator-pitch" method within 90 seconds. Event host and audience can ask 1 to 3 short questions.

You can prepare 1 (one) PDF slide to support your pitch. You should send the slide by Friday noon latest (March 24), at the e-mail dagmar@garage48.org (Subject: name of your project). Ideas sent to us via email get preference.

Consider following key points:

• Briefly describe your background (10 sec)

• What is the name of the idea? (5 sec)

• What's the idea all about? What is the problem your idea solves? Target user count and description (30 sec)

• Technical solution and if there is a revenue model (in case of non-profit idea, how the maintenance and further development costs will be covered?) (30 sec)

• Minimum viable product and plan for 48 hours. Who do you need in your team? (20 sec)

NB! Practice your pitch to your friends or family before you present! 90 seconds goes really fast!

FORMING TEAMS

After pitching is over, we will put all the ideas on the wall. Every participant will choose their favourite idea and this is how teams will be formed. Usually 14 to 20 best ideas will get enough interested people to get the "green light" for the implementation.

Average team has about 5 to 7 people and the team should be "balanced" - covering all required roles like necessary engineers, designer, a project manager (team lead/visionary) and marketer in order to get the product/service ready in 48 hours! Minimum size for a team is 4 people and max is 8 people.

If some ideas get too few people or not balanced teams (probably unable to build the service), the idea will be dumped. Those people should choose another idea/team.

WORKING IN TEAMS

After forming the teams, organizers will give a room/space for every team for the weekend. You should start by dividing roles, setting the product vision, customer journey and start working right away.

It is very important that you have a project manager (team lead) in the team - one of his tasks is to keep the focus of the team, one eye on the clock and the other on the team progress. 48 hours is really a short time.

FOOD & DRINKS

MENTORS

We have arranged great mentors to work with the teams throughout the weekend. Some of them are more technical, some more business savvy. Be open and ask for their advice and contacts. They are there to help you!

Please wear your name badge during the whole event, this will help to encourage networking. Otherwise be open, get to know new people, share your ideas and give ideas/feedback to other teams.

MOST IMPORTANT - have fun!

SUNDAY DEMO PRESENTATIONS

• Sunday afternoon 14:00 pm is the deadline. Either you have your service ready or not, time will tell.

• Every team will practice their demo together with mentors and jury members for 10 minutes to make the final adjustments and make a better presentation.

• We do not allow any Powerpoint presentations for web services - we want product live demo!

• The final demo event starts at 5:30 pm

• We will pick teams randomly. Every team gets 3 minutes for product demonstration (+1 minute for questions).

• We admit, that the development process is the ultimate importance. But we still have a jury, to evaluate the results and choose the top projects.

SLEEPING POSSIBILITIES IN THE VENUE

Take your sleeping bag & mattress and you'll have a possibility to stay overnight in the venue. 

• If you have further questions, please see the Agenda tab above and FAQ below. If you don't find an answer there, then please write us at dagmar@garage48.org or info@garage48.org
  
  

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is Garage48 Minsk 2017? It is an intensive hackathon where people pitch ideas, form teams and build prototypes or sometimes full product/service over the 48 hours. 

• Who can participate? Registration is open to anyone. We are looking for people with different roles - front-end developers, back-end developers, mobile developers, designers, marketers, entrepreneurs, project managers, but also other people interested in building a cool project within 48 hours. If you register to the hackathon event, then we expect you to be ready to work on the project also after the hackathon is over.

• I don't have my own team? Can I come? Sure, Garage48 is about networking, meeting new people, hacking, building new products/services and finding new friends. After pitching ideas on Friday evening, all participants will choose their favourite idea and form a team on-site. You should carefully review all pitched ideas, talk to the team members, negotiate, brainstorm and finally find a best matching project for yourself. Then join this team and start working on the project.

• How to submit and pitch an idea? We ask all participants to submit their ideas already when registering but also share your idea to our Facebook group before the event. This allows other participants to review their idea, ask questions and possibly to develop the idea further. On the hackathon event, there will be about 30-35 slots for ideas.

• How long is the pitch? On Friday night there are 90 second pitches for each idea, followed by 2-3 questions from audience/mentors. You can have one slide (PDF) to support your pitch.

• How are the ideas selected on the event? Afterwards when ideas are pitched, each participant will choose the idea that s/he wants to work on. Ideas that are able to gather a sufficient team around them will prevail. People who have chosen the ideas that are not able to gather proper team will have join other teams.

• How big is an ideal team? In our experience, best teams have between 4 and 7 members. Each team should be self-sufficient by having all the main roles (business and product vision, design, programming, marketing, business development) covered. Minimum size for a team is 4 people and max is 8 people.
  

• If I present an idea at the Garage48 Minsk 2017 event, can someone steal it? Of course :) Hackathon has many participants, including journalists, bloggers and tweeters - your idea will not remain a secret. So, if you think you have a top-secret, patentable, Nobel-prize worthy idea, then don't present it in the hackathon ;). On the other hand, if you have an idea that has been sitting in your head for some time, waiting for right time or right people to be put into practice, then this hackathon is a great place and environment for make it happen!

• Is 48 hours enough? Yes and no. 48 hours is more than enough time to take an idea, build a working prototype, alpha or beta service and make it publicly available for users, potential customers. (Unless you are building a nuclear reactor, new drug, a spaceship of something similar, of course). However, to make your prototype, alpha or beta into a viable business, much more work after the event is needed. We encourage (and give preference in selection) to those participants, who show an interest and willingness to continue working on (successful and promising) ideas after the event!

• Is it a startup competition to get funding? Not really. The main idea of the event is to build startup community, find new friends and meet people, build something cool in 48 hours. But it's not so much about winning the prize or getting financing. This hackathon is mostly an experience of building a new (working) project in 48 hours, meet and work with new people whom you probably would not meet otherwise.

• Can I buy a domain and set up hosting account before the event? Yes, you can do various preparations for your project unless you start designing or coding. We encourage you to think of the project name, business model, short term and long-term plan etc. But it's not allowed to do any coding work on the project before the Garage48 Minsk 2017 event.

• What happens to the developed products and services after the event? The project built during hackathon event is owned by the team who built it. So it's up to the teams to decide how do they take it forward. Some ideas are very likely to be developed into successful businesses, others struggle to find a feasible business model and fade away. Organizers are encouraging teams to continue developing the ideas and provide mentorship, but ultimately, the success or failure rests solely with the members of the team.

• Is the hakathon a continuous 48-hour marathon or can I sleep during the event too? Sleep is for the weak. (Just kidding). While some teams pulled all-nighters at the last events, most successful teams did take time to get a full 7-8 hour sleep, come back in the morning refreshed and were fully productive during the day. We provide floor space in the venue in case you don't want to go home or to your hotel.

• What if I have registered to the hackathon event as a participant but can not come to the event? Please notify us by e-mail as soon as possible about such changes. Garage48 does not give refund to purchased ticket but you can use the same ticket to any other Garage48 hackathon, just let us know beforehand.