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I just wanted to say that you and your team did a fabulous job of organising the plastic hackathon on Saturday. It flowed very nicely between the opening talks, initial ideas, networking and presenting!
I mostly enjoyed having a feel for what it was like to work alongside equally passionate business professionals and students, all of whom were extremely interesting and resourceful when I approached them with questions about their own experiences and knowledge. Being the youngest in a mixed aged team was actually not at all as intimidating as I had perhaps expected. This was due to the willingness of everyone to participate, listening carefully to all ideas and actually having that want to find the best solution possible! |
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I especially liked the structure of the morning where we were given a few existing ideas as food for thought. Also the chance to brainstorm ideas on one topic area as it meant we could really focus our attention to one sector of the plastic problem ensuring the most positive outputs could be received. It also made us consider the bigger picture involving everything from media coverage, to packaging, to the uses and re-uses. All of these business concepts were very new to me and working with people who deal with this in their everyday lives was hugely valuable!
Also, the idea to work in silence for 2 minutes to write down all of your personal ideas seemed to be a huge success of nailing down where everyone’s individual thoughts lay. It meant everyone’s ideas would be considered individually and made voting for the most favourable solution easier within our groups! One thing that I had noticed in my group was that when we were discussing our chosen solution, we had figured out even the smallest details however, these seemed to be forgotten or not able to be put across in our powerpoint. Even though the strict time limits did work well, we could have benefitted hugely from some extra time in the presentation side to ensure all of our key points could be pitched to the judges! This would have definitely increased the quality of the presentations even more so. This was my first hackathon but I could tell that the clear structure throughout the day was greatly appreciated as it enabled really focussed thoughts and ideas in a very constructive way. The clear layout of the printouts was also an excellent additions! Thank you so much for enabling me to be part of this opportunity, I look forward to seeing where all of these knew ideas and questions can take me in the future! Ellie |
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