I love the idea of hackdays. A chance to work intensely to create something different, and something that can open people’s eyes to the many possibilities content can be created in, what’s not to love?
Hackdays or hackathons have largely been used in the computing and technology sector but are becoming more popular as a problem-solving tool. So why have these hackday’s become such a phenomenon?
“True innovation happens at the interface between disciplines. A hackday is a way of enabling individuals, all with very different skills to collaborate and answer a brief. Originally associated with technology challenges, hack days (or hackathons) are great tools to shortcut the creative process.
Whether the challenge is technical or not, the one thing that all hackathons have in common is that by the end, a working product or prototype has been created.” – Marc Curtis, Head of Labs TMW
What’s exciting about introducing content hackdays, especially in B2B, is that it gives us the opportunity to break out of the rut of creating the same old thing.
A content hackday lets clients, content creators and designers all come together for 24hours of exploration and innovation. It gives everyone a chance to flex their creative brains and create content in unimaginable mediums.
How to structure your content hackday
Most hackdays begin with an introduction and presentation on the theme of the hack. Participants are then teamed up to create a mix of skill sets.
Once teamed up the hackday can run for several hours, and can mean a missed night of sleep, fuelled only by pizza and beer!
At the end of the hack each team presents their piece of content in whatever form it has taken and a panel of judges decides the winner.
The outcomes
What is great about a hackday is not only the process itself but that at the end of it you should have an innovative and working piece of content. The informality of the event creates buzz and discussion in and of itself and can improve your content, your strategy and the way you look at creating content in the future.
Try it, you might like it. If you’d like to find out more about content creation and creative ways to get more from your B2B marketing contact First Base Communications.
