How we got here, and where we’re going
Hackathons matter. Each event is an opportunity for participants to strengthen their skills, build new ideas, share knowledge, collaborate, and help expand the vibrant Ethereum community ecosystem.
In that spirit ETHWaterloo was created and subsequently held in October 2017. Response to that event was overwhelming, and made it clear that fellow hackers all over the world wanted a similar event in their local community. Thus we created ETHGlobal, a not-for-profit organization with the mission of fostering this ecosystem starting with making it easy for ethereum enthusiasts who want to run an ETHWaterloo-type hackathons in their own city.
The second event ETHDenver, held in February 2018, embodied the spirit and values of ETHGlobal and helped cement Denver as an important hub for Ethereum development. Next year’s event here will be even bigger!
As of today, we’ve gone global. We’re writing from ETHBuenosAires in Argentina, now the third ETHGlobal event! This hackathon (May 25th to 27th) shows us again that no matter where you are from, whatever your background, if you are interested in collaborating and #buidling new ideas and pushing the technology forward, there is an open and friendly community of fellow Ethereum enthusiasts with a lot of love ready to welcome you. Bienvenido a Buenos Aires, y gracias.
We’re just getting started
We’re excited today to announce the full ETHGlobal season for the rest of 2018!
- ETHIndia (Bangalore): August 10th — 12th
- ETHBerlin: September 7th — 9th
- ETHSanFrancisco: October 5th — 7th
- ETHSingapore December 2018
So what makes an ETHGlobal hackathon special, and why are these events so well received? Aside from leveraging several years of our experience with operational and logistical elements of managing hackathons, our events are special because of the developer-first values that are at the core each of our hackathons. In brief, those values are as follows:
- Let hackers work on whatever technical idea they want. It is important to us that corporations and institutions don’t abuse ETHGlobal hackathons by setting restrictive policies on the kinds of hacks which can be built. Outside of the overall theme of building Ethereum-related technology, any kind of technical hack is welcome and it should be encouraged to be as creative as possible.
- Showing > Telling. To us, a hackathon is a place where inspired and passionate developers are encouraged to build something interesting using the tools available, not just talking about them.
- Mentorship, collaboration, and intentional learning is a must. There is something magical about the hackathon atmosphere. We think it is incredibly important to keep the atmosphere focused on learning new tools and building skills.
- Hackathons ≠ Conferences. ETHGlobal events are world-class hackathons, not conferences. This let’s us focus on empowering the developers to build and learn.
- This is about the ecosystem. ETHGlobal events are for the advancement of the Ethereum ecosystem. As a result, no particular company, partner, or sponsor is allowed to claim the branding of the event.
What support does ETHGlobal provide?
Every hackathon is unique, and whether or not it succeeds depends on the community around it and the hackers who show up. And it also depends on the teams in each city who plan all the details and put everything together.
At ETHGlobal we support the enthusiasts and organizers who want to host hackathons focused on developers and building a supportive, vibrant developer community. We take the lessons we’ve learned from previous hackathons and generalize them into organizing principles and toolsets so each team doesn’t need to re-invent the wheel.
We’re building a comprehensive playbook that will be ready in a couple of weeks; it covers the many practical bits and parts of making a great hackathon happen, as well as technical back-end tools to support some of the key operational functions, like registration. And we also work to connect local organizers with judges and sponsors who make a great fit with the local teams.
Together we’ll keep building and supporting exceptional ethereum hackathons around the world. But for now, it’s time to go back into the kick-ass ETHBuenosAires hackathon and help everyone #buidl awesome apps.
Keep up to date on our series of events by subscribing to our mailing list, or follow us on twitter @ethglobal.
If you’re interested in sponsoring an ETHGlobal event, please reach out to us at hello@ethglobal.co
