Social Storm 2015

A hackathon of this kind can easily generate energy without producing meaningful work.

Social Storm asked participants from different disciplines, universities and countries—many of whom had never met—to understand a complex social challenge, collaborate remotely, develop a viable response and communicate it convincingly within 24 hours.

Manchester also needed to attract participants prepared to commit to the complete experience and provide them with a local environment in which international collaboration could work under intense time pressure.

George organised Manchester’s participation in collaboration with Manchester Enterprise Centre.

His responsibilities included recruiting and selecting participants, managing communications and onboarding, coordinating the venue and local partners, securing support from Tech North and shaping the Manchester participant experience through the event space provided by Dotforge Impact.

During the event, he supported participants through the 24-hour process and helped create the conditions for teams to work across disciplines, locations and time zones.

He subsequently gathered and reviewed participant feedback, using what worked—and the difficulties teams encountered—to consider improvements to the format.

Social Storm took place during Global Entrepreneurship Week 2015.

Participants were placed in international teams and asked to address one of three challenges connected to the UN Sustainable Development Goals: diversity in technology, access to the internet and renewable energy.

Over 24 hours, teams moved from understanding the problem and generating ideas to research, proposition development, business modelling and a final video pitch.

Digital communication connected team members based at different universities, while the Manchester participants worked together from a shared local hub with access to workshops and organiser support.

The result was an experience that combined structured innovation, international collaboration and the intensity of a live event.

• Social Storm connected 167 students from 14 universities in 25 international teams.
• Manchester participants remained engaged through the overnight event.
• Team Rainbow placed third among the 25 teams with FundWatt, a renewable-energy crowdfunding proposition.
• Participant feedback highlighted practical business learning, teamwork, time management and the experience of developing an idea under pressure.
• Feedback also identified the challenges of remote communication and coordination between international team members, providing useful evidence for improving future delivery.

The event-wide participation figures belong to the wider Social Storm partnership. The third-place result belongs to Team Rainbow and its participants. George’s contribution was the organisation and delivery of the Manchester experience rather than authorship of the international event.