I don’t have much experience making things, or I’m not sure I’ll be the right fit for this event. Should I still come?

Absolutely – bring your friends too (but make sure they register)! Whether you’re gluing cardboard together, developing algorithms, or writing a 5,000-word Shrek fanfiction, we’d love to have you on board. If this is your first time and you’ve got no idea what to do, we’ll have an awesome group of volunteers and a great community who will help you have a good time. Terrible Ideas Hackathon event are open to as many people as possible, whether you’re a student, alumni, member of the public, or otherwise. Check out the pages for specific events for more info on who’s invited!

What should I try and get out of the event?

We hope first and foremost that you’ll have a chance to make some friends, learn new things, and have a bit of fun. While Terrible Hack is a celebration of bad ideas, in order to make things you’ll likely have to think about what makes an idea “good” or “bad” and learn a bit on how to practically apply your skills to solve problems.

While other hackathons are often competitive, Terrible Hack is not – we won’t have any (serious) prizes. This is intentional, and we hope that it’ll give you the opportunity to be a bit more ambitious in your choices of projects than you might be normally. In the end, whether you finish your project or not it’s only a few dozen hours – two days! There’s a lot to gain from trying something crazy and not much to lose by failing, so take this opportunity to take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!

What should I expect from the weekend?

We’re excited to say that for over 50% of you, this will be your first time participating in a hackathon. This is awesome, and if you’re one of the many who’ve decided to give this a shot, go you! In the simplest sense, a hackathon is a challenge or event where people come together to make things or solve problems. While traditionally these events are focused on technology, the Terrible Ideas Hackathon is broadly about making anything, be it through code, paintbrush, craft knife, written word, video, music or otherwise.

Through the event, we’ll help people pair up into teams (these can be any size, but we recommend 3-10). From there, you’ll pick something that you want to make – we’ll have lots of ideas swimming around, and you’re welcome to bring your own. For the Terrible Ideas Hackathon, we’ll also have a few “Diversifiers” – suggestions and themes that you can use if you want a place to start.

Will we be working in teams? Is there a max team size?

Generally we strongly encourage everyone to work in teams during the weekend! You’re welcome to bring friends and make a team with them, but many people will be forming teams for the first time on Friday night and we’ll help you do this.

There is no maximum or minimum team size (anywhere from 1 to 100 is fine). After one team had 30 people (good on them), we’ve decided it’d be better to have MORE terrible ideas to enjoy so ten is the upper limit. Smaller teams can move quicker and take less time planning, but large teams (with good organisation) can achieve more.