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Lunchtime project updates from team members at last year’s hack-a-thon.

Anyone who’s attended a hack-a-thon will know a little about the benefits of attending and how to get the most out of the 48 concentrated hours of work to come this weekend. But if you’ve never participated in a hack-a-thon before, you might not realize what a life-changing experience it can be, or you might be worried that your skills won’t be utilized in your team. Never fear: at a hack-a-thon, you’ll find lots of people with varying skill sets, eager to adopt a cause and work toward a solution.

The first thing to keep in mind is that we encourage complete strangers to form teams together. We don’t want you to pursue a project you find less interesting just because you’ll be in a group with a friend. Last year, the team formation period began with an issue brainstorming session. Then we worked our way down the list of issues and signed up anyone who raised a hand to say it appealed to him or her. Issues with insufficient volunteers signed up were crossed off the list, and anyone committed to those issues was asked to commit to another issue. We ended up with four teams of people who barely knew each other, and they learned on the fly how to combine their complementary skills to create awesome final prototypes.

Another thing to remember is that not everyone in the room is a coding expert–and even the coding experts need their non-coding team members for problem-solving, brainstorming, research, design, topic expertise, and more. Don’t feel intimidated if some attendees start their introductions with descriptions of the languages and libraries with which they’re most familiar. Your skills are valuable, especially if they’re unique.

A key advantage of the diversity of skills in a hack-a-thon is the availability of mentors for anyone learning a new skill. If you hear someone say that he or she has worked with a specific language or technology and you want to learn more about it, feel free to introduce yourself. If you find yourself exercising a new skill within your team, let the organizers know where an expert could help. We can put a call out on Twitter for other attendees to see if they’re interested in a little code-checking session.

The most important thing to do when you find yourself in a team is to offer ways that your skills can benefit the project. Don’t count on your teammates to find things for you to do: only you know where your strengths lie, so when you see an opportunity to contribute, don’t hesitate to take on a task or invent a way you can expand on the project.

Last year’s winning team is a perfect example of how complementary skill sets and strangers combine to make great projects. The team, with members who specialize in public policy, voice recognition, civic issues, and software development, created an automated prototype of the city’s shelter bed reservation phone system. Now working together as The Continuum Group, they describe one of their key members on their website:

Near the start of the event, we formed a team to build something to help homeless people in St. Louis. As we tried to flesh out what our concept would look like in real life, in walked James Ware. 13 years ago, James was homeless. He challenged us to look beyond our conceptions of homelessness and the shelter system and meet the real and pressing needs of people whose daily life is on the streets.

Here are a few simple things you can do to prepare:

  • Make sure your electronics are charged and ready to connect to T-REx’s WiFi network. Download updates to your development platform and other must-have software before you go. And if you can, bring devices that you don’t use often: you never know when a project will need to be tested or demonstrated on an iPad or an Android phone.
  • Be realistic about your schedule, and expect delays. Make time for food, sleep, and breaks away from the computer screen. Make sure your teammates know at the start whether you’ll be leaving at a specific time or plan on going home each night. Forty-eight hours is a very long time. Even during a 24-hour hack-a-thon, participants often start the event thinking they can pull all-nighters and discover later what a tough task that is. Plan for extra time in testing, compiling, and demonstration planning–anyplace where issues often arise.
  • Make a quick inventory of your skills: the ones you use regularly, the ones you haven’t used in a long time, the ones you’ve just begun learning, and the ones you especially want to test out. Remember that anything you do for hobbies, things you learned in college, and things you don’t get to do at work all count!
  • Follow the Build for STL social media accounts, where we’ll be posting updates and photos from all of our event venues. The Twitter account will be one reliable source for announcements about food and the schedule. Other resources will be distributed tomorrow during our introductions.
  • Remember to have fun! If you feel yourself getting stressed out, take a break. One great way to get some fresh air: lend a hand at the nearby Urban Harvest rooftop community garden anytime between 10 AM and 12 PM on Saturday. You can also visit the lovely CityGarden or walk along Washington Avenue to a local cafe, deli, or frozen dessert shop.

And as always, if you have a problem, you can contact the organizers. Someone will always be on-site to answer questions and relay messages. Get ready to build a better St. Louis!