Hackathon at 30,000 feet
by Startacus Admin
It’s a week for planes. Our dear friends at The Employable this week wrote about how to become a pilot, the new World War Z trailer has something to do with a plane (albeit, crashing) and now; 
British Airways are hosting a ‘Hackathon’ Tech Challenge at 30,000 feet.
The trip will take participants from San Francisco to London as part of British Airways ‘unGrounded’ campaign, and will see more than 100 of Silicon Valley’s brightest academics, tech-heads, entrepreneurs and innovators come on board. They’ll be working to come up with tangible solutions to global problems over the course of the 11 hour flight. The entire operation is intended as an allegory for the potential that technology has; bringing people from all over the world together, and then through their ideas – moving things forward.
Specifically, the participants (who could also simply be referred to in this case as ‘passengers’) will aim to tackle the problem of talent crunch; essentially matching talented individuals with genuine opportunities. Not since ‘Snakes on a Plane’ will so many people have worked together to overcome a major social problem at this altitude.
The participants though, are, thankfully, less inclined to bite each other. They will include Wikipedia boss Jimmy Wells, Sir Bob Geldof, Rosario Dawson and others selected for their ‘energy, ideas and experience.’
The idea is the brainchild of the DNA – Decide Now Act – summit, which creates a network of innovators with the intent of resolving global issues. When the plane lands, the participants will be asked to present their work and findings in the House of Lords to the Summit, as well as to the Secretary General of the ITU – the UN agency responsible for information and communication technologies.
DNA’s website on the event highlights the potential gains from the venture which BA believes illustrates their commitment to forward thinking and social entrepreneurial spirit. One just hopes there isn’t too much turbulence.
Written by Ethan Loughrey
If you like what you see here on Startacus and want to get involved yourself, why not become a member of our growing community by joining for free here!
Subscribe to our newsletter
If you would like to receive our startup themed newsletter, full of the latest startup opportunities, events, news, stories, tips and advice, then sign up here.
Frolo is a social networking app on a mission to connect single parents to likeminded single parents living in the same area.
Know Your Money, the independent financial comparison website, recently conducted research to find out which UK cities are best to start a business outside of the capital.
University digital academy SurreyIDEA, to scrap tuition fees like a conventional university, for investment in their students’ enterprises.
Starting up a business is difficult. To help, here are 5 things you need as a startup business.
Creating a website can be both costly and time-consuming. So here's 7 ways you can build a budget-friendly website.
Premium fashion resale service Cudoni secures £1.4m investment to support brand growth internationally at a time when the secondary fashion market is booming fuelled by consumer concerns for sustainability.
ESTHER, a pocket-to-pocket giving app which allows a user to give directly to an individual living in poverty, wins an all-expenses paid trip to New York.
The FinTech startup that's using blockchain to make the financial side of filmmaking easier
The London based startup that's created a game that inspires children to code and teaches professional programming skills.
So much is written about how people should go about starting a business, but little is said about whether someone should start one! These are the question we should be asking...
Published on: 3rd April 2013
If you would like to enable commenting via your Startacus account, please enable Disqus functionality in your Account Settings.
- ESTHER set for success with New York prize 24th Jun 2019 ESTHER, a pocket-to-pocket giving app which allows a user to give directly to an individual living in poverty, wins an all-expenses paid trip to New York.
- Experiential learning initiative mTech.Academy to build on year 1 success 20th Jun 2019 NI experiential learning initiative mTech.Academy announces plans to expand it's programme for the 2019/20 academic year.
- Stashbee announces £1.6m funding round on Seedrs 17th Jun 2019 Stashbee, the online sharing-economy platform for storage space, has announced a £1.6m funding round on leading European investment platform Seedrs.
- The upSTART finalists at Digital DNA 2019 13th Jun 2019 upSTART, the startup pitch competition at Digital DNA 2019 will see over 20 disruptive NI-based startups pitch to determine who will win an all-expenses paid trip to explore the New York tech scene.
