You’ll like the bonus tip 😉
Let’s start with some practical stuff
Help us keep plastic and paper out of the trash
Bring your drink bottle. We’re sure it’s as unique as you are so you won’t lose it. But just in case you want to customize it further, there will be plenty of colourful Hack Belgium stickers to customize it. And yes, free drinking water for everyone, courtesy of our friends at De Watergroep.
Oh, and bring a coffee mug too! Coffee will be available throughout the day too – and we promise you’ll need plenty of it.
Dress comfortably
Hack Belgium is all about substance, not about looks. You won’t impress anyone with sharp threads or fresh kicks (do kids still say that?), so… dress comfortably.
Running shoes are definitely a good idea – there will be a lot of walking involved as Hack Belgium is big (and we mean BIG – it’s over 8,000 square meters), and you’ll get to explore all of it.
If you have an Enterprise or a Pro ticket, your food & drinks for the 3 days (and that’s breakfast, lunch and dinner!) are covered.
You will be able to buy food and drinks (and water is free) at Hack Belgium too – bring cash or cards. Bring your tartinekes too if you prefer!
Don’t forget your laptop or tablet!
There’s a lot of thinking work involved in Hack Belgium, and you’ll need to do a lot of research and likely a good deal of writing. PowerPoint or Keynote might come in handy too. WiFi will of course be available, and plenty of electricity.
Bring your kid along on Saturday
Having kids to take care of on Saturday is just not a good excuse to skip Hack Belgium. We’ve put together a Hack Belgium Kids program (yup, we’ll get them started on hacking too).
Check out the details here, and (so long as your offspring is between ages 10 and 18), bring them along!
Be there on time!
Oooh, this is an important one. Every morning at Hack Belgium starts with a briefing – the things you need to accomplish during during the day, cool stuff not to miss and more.
We won’t wait for you, so you better be in that chair by 9:00 sharp!
Aim to be a bit earlier at Tour & Taxis on March 28, actually – there will be a lot of people checking in at the reception, and you don’t want to be stuck in the queue while everyone else getting started.
Practicalities out of the way, here’s how you get your brain ready for Hack Belgium.
There’s a lot of choices to be made at Hack Belgium – it’s kind of overwhelming if you don’t prepare yourself for it. There’s a ton of things to do – especially on Day 1 (March 28) – so you really should plan your HB journey.
There are 12 societal themes on offer at Hack Belgium.
We suggest to pick two, and to do one ideation workshop for each one of those two. Towards the end of the day you should be aiming for the round-up workshop for one of those two – you can choose which one as you go.
How to choose the right themes: one that is professionally relevant, and the other that you care deeply about.
Yes, you – technically – could do three ideation workshops on March 28. But we really, really recommend that you don’t. You’ll be so exhausted by the end of the third one that you simply won’t last till the round-up workshops…
And, if you go for three, you’ll miss out on meeting more people and on all the other amazing workshops we have in store for you – there’s over 50 of those. So yeah, read up on the workshops and do some planning.
Ten emerging technologies are represented at Hack Belgium.
You’re probably aware of them all, and quite familiar a couple – so here’s your chance to discover the rest.
They will all be available in our Experience Zone, so drop by it on Day 1 to see what’s there, and plan for a more in-depth visit on Day 2 when you know on what exactly you and your team are working.
Once you know that, you’ll be able to ask better questions to the experts in the Experience Zone and get better answers on how their technology can help your project.
Before we forget: there are workshops on technologies too 🙂 If you need a quick introduction to what – for example – AI can do, plan the AI workshop into your Day 1.
Speaking of planning… You’ll need your Hack Belgium app to do it.
Download the Hack Belgium app following the instructions you will have received already if you have a PRO or an Enterprise ticket.
With the app you can register for workshops, find fellow participants, and identify experts you absolutely need to talk to.
If you have an Enterprise or a Pro ticket, you already have full access to the app -you should have received information by email (if not, mail us at team@hackbelgium.be).
If you have a Citizen or Student ticket, you’ll receive your invitation to download the app on March 22.
If you have an idea that you want to work on during Hack Belgium, practice your pitch.
If you don’t have an idea yet, don’t worry about it – the event is geared towards creation of new ideas. But if you’ve got one already, be prepared to tell about it to dozens – or hundreds of people.
Keep in mind though, many of them will be busy working on ideas of their own, so your pitch better be good.
Bonus tip
Don’t plan anything for the Sunday after Hack Belgium… except maybe #netflixandchill.
You will be exhausted – we promise 😉