On 20th and 21st July The O2 played host to HACKED, a free 24 hour hackday created by The Lab, the digital innovation team at O2, and Geeks Of London. The event attracted 500 developers from around the world, coming together for an intense weekend of learning, building and sharing cool stuff.
The sell-out event, sponsored by tech heavyweights including Microsoft, Nokia, Heroku, PayPal and Yahoo!, was aimed at developers of all ages, abilities and backgrounds. Attendees were challenged to build a usable piece of software in 24 hours using whatever coding language they wanted. The event also featured presentations and workshops by developers and sponsors.
Sleeping areas in the O2 were provided for attendees, however many elected to work through the night to finish off their creations. Finished hacks included BusBulb, which uses household lamps to tell you when your bus is coming, Knitted Cycling Glove, an automatic indicator for cyclists and Hobrogrammer, which lets you know which events in your area have free food. In all seventy five Hacks were developed, which can be viewed at http://www.hackerleague.org/hackathons/hacked/ .
Brendan O’Rourke, Telefónica UK CIO, said “It’s really important to Britain’s economy that we recognise digital skills and encourage the millennial generation to explore the opportunities which lie in digital literacy. Events like HACKED provide digital natives a great forum to hone their skills which is something we’re passionate about across Telefónica Europe. At Campus Party this September we will be offering an internship with The Lab to the young person who creates the best hack which does something it isn’t supposed to do.”
The O2 will also play host to Campus Party in September. Europe’s biggest and most ambitious electronic entertainment event, Campus Party is a week-long, 24-hour-a-day technology festival for thousands of “campuseros” – hackers, developers, gamers and geeks. Equipped with computers and other high-tech devices, they camp on-site and immerse themselves in a truly unique environment. For more information go to www.campus-party.eu.
HACKED and Campus Party are examples of Telefónica Europe’s commitment to build a more entrepreneurial Europe. In January Telefónica Europe announced its 2015 ambitions to combat unemployment and close the digital skills deficit in Europe, reinforcing the company’s long-standing commitment to social change and economic recovery in the region.
Among its 2015 targets, Telefónica Europe pledged to create more than 1,000 start-up opportunities worldwide through various initiatives such as Wayra and Talentum; build a Telefónica Think Big community of more than 300,000 young people working to build a more entrepreneurial Europe; enrol 50,000 students in Think Big School, teaching digital literacy such as coding and robotics; and transition 5,000 young people and graduates from education into the workplace via its Talentum programme.
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