My experience with Hack Club Horizons Europa
I’ve been participating in Hack Club for about two years so far. I’ve written posts about when I went to Shipwrecked and when I won Campfire.
It started in late February. Whilst I was working on building this website, I checked the Hack Club Slack and discovered a new announcement.
You notice something big coming from the horizon… a new series of hackathons coming to a region near you!!
This was the announcement for Hack Club Horizons,, opens in new taba series of hackathons taking place around the world. I checked the region list and found that one such hackathon was called Horizons Europa. It was happening in Berlin, which the UK has reasonably priced flights to. Since it took place 24th-26th July, I had plenty of time to prepare.
I signed up to the official Horizons dashboard and checked what I needed to do to qualify. It was simple - all I had to do was spend 35 hours programming on projects of my choice. Hack Club used a platform called Hackatime, opens in new tabto track time coding. My prior experience with Hack Club meant it was already set up.
Despite also preparing for exams, there was enough free time where I could polish this site. It didn’t take long for me to complete the 35 hours required. I acquired a ticket from the official dashboard and, soon enough, the event arrived.
24th July - Day One
On the first day of the event, I woke up early at 4:15 and travelled from home to Heathrow Airport. My flight was at 8:50, but it didn’t hurt to be cautious. Security was a breeze to get through. I arrived at the duty-free shops with two hours to kill.
In the run-up to the event, I had also been planning a free book about the XZ Utils backdoor called The Second Maintainer. As of the time of writing, it’s in the proofreading stage. When I was at the airport, I found a table and continued working on it.
After about 45 minutes, a message on Slack caught my attention. It turned out two other Horizons Europa attendees were taking the same flight as me (I won’t be naming any attendees out of respect to their privacy). I saved my work and set off to find them.
When we up with each other, we got along immediately. With all the stuff we had in common, there was no shortage of things to talk about. Sadly, none of us had seats next to each other on the plane. When it came time to board, we drew the conversation to a close. The flight only took 90 minutes and went very peacefully.
The plane landed, and we all made our way through security - the queues were long but not unbearably so. We met up with another attendee from the UK who had caught another flight. As it turned out, she went to the same school I completed my GCSE’s at! Whilst travelling via German public transport to the event accommodation, we caught up on how everything had been going. I also chatted with the organisers of the event, who were surprisingly sociable.
After disembarking and going on a brief walk, we arrived at the Wyndham Garden Berlin Mitte hotel, opens in new tab. Originally built in the 1920s, it was starting to show its age. Nonetheless, it was a comfortable place. We waited in the lobby as the other attendees arrived in droves. Half an hour passed, and enough people had finally arrived.
With enough people, we set off to the nearby makerspace called MotionLab.Berlin., opens in new tabIt was nearby and had plenty of space for us all. The standout feature was the double-decker bus, converted into a meeting room and office space. We all split into teams, and I formed a team of four.
The premise of this hackathon revolved around household objects: each team is given a random item and has to build a project out of it. Our item was a plastic piece of broccoli. At first, we brainstormed potential ideas on a whiteboard. One of our team members brought some hardware, and the NFC tag reader caught our eye. With that, we formed a plan.
The game focused on growing your broccoli faster than your opponent could. Every couple of seconds, either a raincloud or the sun would appear at the top of the screen. Both players had a corresponding NFC tag for each event, and the first to scan their tag boosted their broccoli’s growth. The game ended once all 12 ingame-months had passed, and each player’s score was saved to their mobile app. We started the implementation on the first day, finished it on the second, and polished it on the third.
It quickly turned dark outside, so everybody headed back to the hotel. The spreadsheet used for room allocation had broken and took the organisers until midnight to sort out everyone’s room numbers. On the flip side, I enjoyed the free ice cream they handed out. After a small room mix-up, my room was finally arranged and I got some much-needed rest.
25th July - Day Two
Day 2 opened with us exploring the city of Berlin. Several people split off from the main group, but I decided to stay with the majority. We visited the East Side Mall, opens in new tab, where we bought snacks from Aldi. My personal favourites were vanilla waffles. A single pack contained over 40 waffles, and they each tasted amazing. I also found a nearby bookstore and got myself a nice fridge magnet of a penguin with balloons. Next, we walked alongside the East Side Gallery, opens in new tab- the longest stretch of the Berlin Wall still standing. It had plenty of beautiful art made after the Berlin Wall fell.
Having finished sightseeing for the day, we headed back to the venue to continue work on our projects. I completed a backend for the game using Python and Flask, whereas other members built the MicroPython NFC reader code, the React website, and the Flutter app. We had a functional, albeit clunky, game.
During the afternoon, the organisers announced there would be lightning talks running. What separates a lightning talk from an ordinary talk is you only have two minutes to explain your topic. Some organisers had talks, but they opened it up to the attendees to join in too. I thought I might as well do one all about Search Engine Optimisation for personal websites. It is an area I have plenty of knowledge on, given the research I’ve completed whilst making this site. Over the course of an hour, I created a slideshow and then presented it to the 80 people there. It was received well, and I was approached for some feedback on someone’s personal website afterwards.
Each attendee was given some very nice Korean takeaway for dinner, which went down a treat. We then headed back to the hotel for the night. My team stayed up late as we polished the game. I tried to complete an online check-in for my flight back home, but the system gave an error. After an hour with customer support, the conclusion was to just check-in at the airport kiosk. I called it for the night and went to get some rest.
26th July - Day Three
On the final day, I ensured to pack my bags early. We all travelled from the hotel to the venue, although on an empty stomach. When we arrived, we were soon met with an assortment of cakes from a local bakery for breakfast. Although unconventional, they were high-quality and tasted divine.
We didn’t have long until our projects needed presentation, so my team scrambled to apply the finishing touches. Our game was finally ready just in time!
All teams had their projects running on their laptops during the presentation, and you walked around to see them all. Since our project involved hardware, of course we encountered a couple of technical difficulties. They were relatively minor and easy to fix. Most importantly, the other attendees all seemed to really enjoy the game.
Everyone else’s projects were great too. Some key highlights were: a camera that used motion tracking so you could play Doom using a paper keyboard, a talking hamster therapist you could call on your phone, and a cooperative puzzle game where all players are computer mice. Everybody managed to create really unique projects out of their random items.
Once everyone finished voting for their favourites, the scores were tallied. Although our team didn’t win, I still greatly enjoyed the process of making the project. The organisers presented the closing ceremony and marked the end of Horizons Europa.
I still had a couple of hours until my flight was due to set off. Me and two others asked a German attendee what their favourite restaurant was in all of Berlin. They gave us the address of a sushi place roughly 40 minutes away from the venue, and we set off to go find it. We accidentally held up a full bus whilst figuring out how to buy a ticket, but aside from that it was smooth sailing.
We arrived at the location - Jasmin, opens in new tab, a Vietnamese restaurant. The Celebration sushi mix caught our eyes, so we ordered it and a handful of starters. When they came, we easily saw why the German guy recommended it so highly. It’s hard to put into words how nice it was. If you’re ever in Berlin, you need to try it. Out of curiosity, I checked the kid’s menu too and found dishes such as the I’m not hungry and the I want to go to Mc Donald’s. The place has a great sense of humour.
The journey back to the airport was slow but easy. We meandered through various train networks and even boarded a double-decker train! I chatted with the help desk at the airport, and it turned out they just wanted to stow my suitcase. The overhead lockers were overbooked and they needed some extra space. When passing through security, a guard asked about the talking hamster plush we were carrying. We turned it on, and its chattering attracted attention from plenty of passers-by. The guard found it very funny and let us continue.
In the duty-free shops, I bought a fridge magnet of “Ampelmann”, opens in new tab- the little pedestrians on German traffic lights. The queue for leaving the EU was far longer than expected, and I almost missed the plane! Thankfully, I made it with a few minutes to spare. There was some nice conversation with the passenger next to me during the flight, but I was relieved to make it back home to my own bed.
Overall
Horizons Europa was really fun! I’m endeavouring to stay in touch with the people I met there. I also enjoyed learning more about Flask, and I feel like a much more confident speaker after the lightning talk. It took a few days to wear off the sleep defecit, but it was all worth it.
You can certainly count on me doing more hackathons in the future.