First VR Hackathon in Europe - Brussels, Belgium

This year, I’ve enrolled in a two days trip to Brussels, Belgium. The trip wasn’t planned as an ordinary journey, to visit Notre Dame du Sablon neither the Grand Place -(which was amazing, in the day for the lovely music and tasty beer and even better in the evening for the unique light show)

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but for a two days VR Hackathon .
The VR Hackathon, first time organized in Europe, was recommended by a colleague of mine, which has developed an interest for VR applications, VR gadgets as well as augmented reality.
The trip to Brussels was in the plan, the only thing we had to do was to get there in time. We’ve been checking for airplanes and we found probably the cheapest ticket, of course, through Ryanair. How cheap you ask?
We’ve paid 80 DKK(Danish currency) each, for a two-way ticket from Copenhagen, which was less expensive than the train ride we have got from Aalborg to Copenhagen.

Crazy cheap :D

In this article, you’ll be immersed in a world where everything is possible. Where a helicopter ride or a two ways ride to the moon and back can be done in a fraction of a second. I’d like to share with you a couple of my experiences during the hackathon and through the lines, I’ll try to provide some tips for those of you interested in participating in this types of events.

FRIDAY NIGHT

We got to the venue around 6:10 PM, after leaving our luggage at the place we’ve decided to have as our home for the following days to come. Once we got to the venue where the hackathon was taking place we have been welcomed by a lovely group of organizers in an awesome location called CO.STATION, which is a co-working space merged with a business incubator, placed in the heart of Brussels right next to St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral.

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After a couple of tension-filled hours, where people were networking and trying different VR equipment such as the SAMSUNG Gear VR, Oculus Rift and a bunch of other cool stuff, we have been fortunate enough to be the first ones who get to put their hands on a 360 camera from GIROPTIC, who was crowdfunded on Kickstarter with 3,916 backers that pledged $1,419,068 to help bring that project to life.

Lucky us, right?

During the networking session, we were asking each other what will be happening next, because, according to the schedule we were already about to start forming teams. (maybe this could be improved)

In the meanwhile, the program started with a presentation, in which they introduced the aims of the VR Hackathon and how it would all go down.
Juan Bossicard and Cecile Jadaudon have both spoke and delighted us with a bunch of well-chosen words of inspiration to remind us why we were all there.

After their presentation, the pitching session had started, where every participant that had an idea, could pitch in front of the crowd, with a 60 seconds time assigned for each pitcher. (If you have been participating in hackathons before or Startup Weekends, you know how this goes.) A bunch of interesting ideas has been pitched, as a mind mapping tool for VR where you are not anymore limited to the place that surrounds you to create a mind map, but a limitless environment in a virtual reality. Another cool idea, pitched by one of the organizers was focused on innovating the way we check our oldest way of online communication. If you thought about e-mail then you got it right.
The vibe and energy in the coworking space were substantial, as you could almost hear it. Everyone was eager to either search for the missing skills from their team, as the place was filled with plenty of people with a vast experience, ranging from designers, developers, researchers, architects, sound engineers, entrepreneurs, makers and so on. People that are involved with creating VR Hackathons in the USA had flown to Brussels to make sure that the event goes according to plan and everything went great.

You don’t need to be a programmer to get involved in this sort of gatherings.

The cumulus of things you need to bring with you were passion, curiosity, interest and nonetheless, enthusiasm.
The event had a strong emphasis on working with a range of different VR resources and uses. Even though a theme was not assigned, the VR hackathon was based on a couple of categories as (Best VR Project of Show, Best Web-Based VR Project, Best Mobile-Based VR Project, Best Looking VR Scene, Best Samsung Gear VR Project, Best 3D Audio Project, Best Unreal VR Experience) that were followed in order to have a judging criteria at the end of the event. Except that, everyone could come up with any concept they want!

WHAT HAVE I WORKED WITH?

I have been thinking about a couple of ideas before coming to the hackathon, but I was as well open to get work done with groundbreaking ideas, like the one I’ve joined.
The idea we’ve joined was a merger between two great ideas, one that was called VR Mind Palace, where individuals could attach memories to every object they have built in their virtual homes and the other, which was a social VR application that focuses on allowing people to give feedback in audio format to architectural models, within an immersive experience.
Later that day, we’ve decided that we should be first focusing on the architectural application and if we finish in time, we could eventually start working on the mind palace. After a couple of hours of work around 2 o’clock, it was time to head home, keeping in mind that we’ve already reached almost 38 hours of sleepless hours we walked home through Les Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert” and it was worth it.

SATURDAY

8:00 AM: BREAKFAST - skipped

10:00 AM: - BACK TO WORK

Yes, we’ve been a little late, as the sleepless hours we had days before didn't allow for a decent awakening hour. When we reached CO.STATION everyone was working to finish their projects and some of them had even spent the night hacking. The teams were assigned to their spaces, which were brilliantly built within the coworking space. To make sure everyone has the technology needed, the organizers have shared a VR Google CardBoard with every participant. (Nicely done!)
Of course, everyone brought their computers. Some had even carried their chunky desktops. In the end of the day, there was more technology gathered together in place than I’ve ever seen before.

THE TEAM:

Like I said before, our team grew from a merger of two ideas. We’ve ended up being 8 people:
3 developers - from which one had architectural background
1 sound artists
1 architect
3 business people from which one had been previously involved in a 9-week training course for programming, named Le wagon.

We have started splitting tasks, and from there everything went smoothly, as everyone seemed to find his place within the project while doing the work that had to be done. The way we’ve set ourselves within the room helped to the overall communication, as we could either tell our ideas or just turn over our screen to present what is that we are working on.
Once the hacking session had started, we began planning in advance. Our process wasn’t as strict as you might think, but cumbersome, as such that everyone took the a leadership role at a moment in time.

Development from the ground up

VR is an unusual technology, in that a large part of the push towards development comes from outside of the industry.
“It is a lot of tinkerers and hobbyists that make VR a reality. At it’s roots, it’s really a ground-up movement.”
Local communities and developers have seized upon the medium, but quickly find that the need to collaborate with others.
“It is a complicated medium, and a lot of the boundaries and rules of this medium are still unknown,” Juan explains.
EUVR has identified over 55 VR meetups in 40 cities, encompassing about 12,000 people in Europe. The meetup groups talk and exchange knowledge about VR — but they are also helping shape how the technology is being developed.
“People have to make a choice -which platform, which distribution, which hardware should you be compatible with. These communities need to be supported and connected, as they are writing the rules of this new media.”
As an industry cluster, EUVR hopes to help connect local communities, such as the Danish one — with other VR hubs, as well as industry players like Microsoft, Google, and Unity.

Gaming dominates VR — for now

In 2016, VR will still mostly reach consumers through entertainment platforms, and there was no shortage of these at the hackathon. The winners, Pandageddon, created a multiplayer game integrating 2 players using VR attempting to escape from a dungeon while a third person interacted with them through a tablet.
“Pandagedden managed to create a multiplayer co-op gameplay experience with almost a full game loop in a perfect mix of GearVR and Tablet. Their idea about using live voice interacting to teamwork was also great!” said judge Thomas Barstschi, EUVR’s representative in the Nordics and a key player in developing the EUVR initiative from the ground up.

BUT IT’S NOT ABOUT COMPETITION

Honestly, I didn’t care much about the voting (I didn’t even know there WAS voting at the end of the hackathon). Every project I saw was so unique and exhibited great uses for VR, whether it meant experimenting with music in different 3D environments or teaching early literacy with a phonetic storybook experience (they won 1st place!). All of them were winning projects.
It was so great to see the ideas that were presented during lightning rounds come to life. People came to the event not knowing anything about VR or what it could do, yet those same people came up with ideas and made them happen.
##TIPS FOR FUTURE HACKERS
If you’re thinking of doing a hackathon for the first time, here’s some advice that will be useful when you are preparing for your first event. You may have heard some of these, but there’s nothing wrong with a little reiteration!

GET OUT THERE!

You may think you don’t have the skills required to “hack”, but you do, and even if you don’t, who cares? You don’t need to be an expert at anything. As long as you have the drive and curiosity to move a project forward under a tight time constraint, you are just as capable as any other hacker.

PREPARE

If you are doubting yourself, it helps to take some time to study up on the tools you might use at a hackathon. Getting familiar with game engines such as Unity or UE4 really helped for VR.

WORKING IN TEAM IS WORTH IT

Strangers turned into friends by the end of the event. Everyone feels under pressure when there’s only 2 days to make something, especially in the unfamiliar area of VR. But the key to success is keeping a positive attitude and doing everything you can to help out not only your team, but other teams. That could mean contributing assets/advice or simply bringing over some extra coffee.

KEEP IT SIMPLE

“Don’t try to create a virtual tribute to Van Gogh in 30 hours. I mean, you could try, but focus on the basics first. This is especially true in VR when functionality and interactions are extremely important for immersion.”

GET OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE

If you develop, try doing design too. Or, if you don’t do anything, take on something that intrigues you. You can’t fail at a hackathon. You can only learn and broaden your skills. And the best part? People around you are happy to help you every step of the way.

NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK

I can’t emphasize this enough. Don’t just mingle with the people on your team, speak to anyone you come across throughout the weekend. Hear their story and share your own. You learn so much by just talking to people.
And, from my experience, hackathons are the best way to network because you are actually working together instead of just talking to each other. You get to see how people work under pressure, and that can reveal a lot. Plus, you can find some really awesome people that you love working with and continue working with them post-hackathon.

SHOULD YOU PARTICIPATE AT HACKATHON?

Yes. Yes. Yes. Go to a hackathon. And I’m not just talking about VR hackathons. Working under pressure for any design project is such an eye-opening experience. And, you feel SO productive by the end of the weekend.

THANK YOU, ORGANIZERS!

I just want to give a huge thank you to the organizers of this event; they put a lot of work into this and that definitely paid off.
@alexandru