HackFSU Draws 200 Entrepreneurs for 24 hour Hackathon

HackFSU, Florida's largest hackathon, was a runaway success. With close to 200 attendess from across the state, great schools and great friends came together to hack new concepts and iterate new products over an adrenaline infused 24-hour period. Domi was proud to be the event's title sponsor.

Dozens of new ideas turned into demonstration ready prototypes, but there was more than just hacking at HackFSU. The event's programming included multiple lightning round tech talks on subjects like Ruby, intellectual property, UX design, and Git. The talks aimed to expand horizons and encourage Tallahassee's growing tech community to work in new platforms.

But while the tech talks were eye-opening, it took a ton of RedBull to keep everyone awake for 24 hours. Indiscriminate energy drink consumption led to a 12am hype party, a 5am pushup contest, and an impromptu rave performance from one of the attendees. Needless to say, you can never quite plan for how an event might take on a life of its own.

HackFSU was planned and created by a group of 7 locals who worked for months in advance to make sure everything went off without a hitch. Momentum picked up through the planning stages, and by the time doors opened on April 5th the HackFSU team had received help and insight from tech groups as far away as Michigan, New Jersey, Cincinnati, and Arkansas.

The hackathon movement is huge but, until HackFSU, it lacked proper representation in the southeast. Published on the Major League Hacking Calendar, HackFSU added Florida to the national hackathon conversation.  When the HackFSU team recently attended a similar event at Virginia Tech, others recognized the HackFSU brand and shirts. Many expressed interest in attending next year's event--a sign that there are big things brewing in Tallahassee. HackFSU advanced our startup community's brand across the nation, making it Florida’s biggest and most successful hackathon yet.

This post was written by Diva Hurtado, a founding member of HackFSU and President of TechNOLEgy.