ConnectU Hackathon
Connect the Cities of the Future
For Professional Development, four of my peers and I took part in the “Connect the Cities of the Future” hackathon. We were challenged to think about how digital ideas could help bring people together in tomorrow’s city centres.
Finding the real challenge
At first, we thought the goal was to encourage people to visit city centres again. After listening to the pitches, we realised the challenge was more specific: the organisers wanted to bring customers back to local stores. It was a small distinction, but it changed how we needed to think about the problem.
Our idea: a local discovery portal
We built a web portal that gives people a personal way to explore Enschede. It helps users find enjoyable things to do based on their interests, while also highlighting activities organised by local people and businesses. We wanted to make discovering the city feel more personal and give visitors a reason to explore what was happening nearby.
What we learned
Looking back, our solution still focused more on bringing people into the city than on directing customers to businesses. The hackathon taught us how important it is to listen closely, understand the people behind a challenge, and check that an idea addresses the organisers’ actual goal. Even with that lesson, it was a fun day of collaborating, sharing ideas, and building something together.