8 am

Oops. Another morning. Another lie-in. I have some vague dream-like memory of my early alarm going off at 6 am, but I knew straight away there was no chance I’d be getting up again. By the time the Team Regroup chat started at 8 am, I just decided to dial in from the comfort of my bed.

8.45

I think I’m awake. Sort of. I get onto my laptop and check out the Slack channel. Lots have been going on through the night (well, my night). There have been discussions about the designs, the logo has been changed, but we have code. We even have our cryptocurrency. Our team member in Mexico is pulling an all-nighter to get this done, so I better get some caffeine and get back on it.

9.45

This morning is just whizzing by! I’ve spent the last hour research stuff for our presentation. Now it’s time to update the README file on Github and tidy up our submission folder ready for the noon deadline.

10.23

The one downside of this hackathon being virtual is that there’s no free food. I was tempted to order a Dominos pizza just for tradition’s sake but hey, maybe without pizza we’ll win (right?) 

11.30

HALF AN HOUR TO GO. We’re all on a team call adding the final bits to our submission. 

11.55

Is it all there? Go through the checklist. Yes, it looks like we’re good.

All submitted.

Time for a break before our next meeting. I take advantage of the free time to do my usual weekend chores which I’ve pretty much ignored the last two days. 

12.30 

I’m back. There’s been some confusion over the next meeting which has been pushed back half an hour, but at least we’re all online ready. Time to get the presentation sorted for 2 pm! Not going to lie, I’m ready for a nap right now.

13.00

There is a technical check for the presentation right now, and I feel a migraine coming on, so I step away from my computer to give my eyes a rest. Sometimes it’s hard to remember the self-care side of things during a virtual hackathon because there is so much going on. As we’re all sat somewhere by ourselves, we don’t get that reminder to step away from your computer, grab a drink or some food, or generally turn away from the computer screen like we would if we were all together in person.

14.30

It’s presentation time! Here we go! Our team (Team Timezones) is up first after a 10 minute warm-up from Sarah. I watch each five-minute presentation with anticipation. We’ve selected our UX specialist as our presenter, and he does a fantastic job. Originally the plan included demo-ing the code and the proto-type. There has been a decision to omit this section due to time constraints. It ends up being a great decision as the presentation finishes at exactly 5:00 and handover to the next team.

15.10

The presentations have all been finished. There were a few tech issues, but the concepts were all fantastic. I’m feeling optimistic for a top-three position, but I have learned so much this weekend that I’ll be happy with any position.

We jump on a quick team zoom call to praise the presenter and make our predictions for the awards. We’re all hyped up for the final countdown. After about half an hour, we break off and have a quick break before the 4.30 awards presentation.

And with that, I’ll end this post. Come back tomorrow and see how it ends and what I learned from the experience!