What?

Multi-week drop in and out hack camp in the English Lake District

Remote hackathons and other ways that the tech industry has responded to the Covid pandemic have been great for keeping us all productive over this time.

What we have however missed out on is place based community, and Hack the Lakes is a tentative plan to bring that back based in a tiny corner of the Lake District.

Scratch the surface of any part of this area and you find the birthplace of ideas that shaped our world.

The event will give space and provide inspiration to explore technology that solves today's problems. We aim to put a mixture of technologists and problem owners in an area in the heart of the Lake District for a few weeks over summer, spend time together to generate meaningful and sustainable prototype technology solutions.

We are planning to:

  1. Pick some specific goals in local and global challenge areas of supporting environmentally and socially sustainable community.

  2. Engage problem owners, creative thinkers, experienced and new developers at a curated hack camp over several summer weeks in an inspiring environment.

  3. This is holiday time so make it fun and inspirational for everyone that shares their time with us. Aim is to inspire and unleash creativity, not do stuff that feels like work. Lots of on and offsite recreational opportunities.

  4. Create prototype solutions almost as a bi-product.

Why

Inspiration comes first, solving problems flows from that.

Traditional tech hackathons are typically 2-3 days and based on focussed "macho" short cycle prototype development. Our vision for HTL is so much more than this. We want to create a relaxing, and recharging environment for all participants - the perfect cure for pandemic induced disconnects. This will include lots opportunities to derive inspiration from the rich surrounding area, either as part of informally organised guided activities or under your own steam.

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Facilities

Our aim is to provide productive and relaxing facilities whilst making the event as accessible as possible to anyone who wants to contribute.

This will be based on camping at a site that will also function as Hack The Lakes HQ. It will have WiFi, electricity, toilets, and showers as well as a covered space to work together and create. Onsite accomodation will be based on bringing your own tent and camping on the site. We realise this won't suit everyone, and, if you wish to arrange your own holiday accommodation locally, it will be possible to participate fully and we will do our best to facilitate this.

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Location & Transport

Our location in the heart of the beautiful Lake District is highly accessible for responsible transport.

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Current Status

The project is currently not much more than a field and an idea, there is lots of work that still needs to be done to make it real.

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Get involved

Join us in the Hack the Lakes space on Matrix.

Register an Interest

Fill in this Contact form if you would like to contact us directly.