LET’S HACK!

Thirty hours of coding straight through, three young talents, a Magic Mirror as the goal — and a CEO defeated by his own need for sleep.

From midday on Friday 20 October to late afternoon on Saturday 21 October 2023, the Young Talents Hackathon took place at the Neubad in Lucerne. Together with a team of three young talents, we at xappido delivered the digital project “Magic Mirror”.

30 hours of coding in one go!

Staying awake that long is a real challenge, as our CEO Sandro found out at the Young Talents Hackathon. But motivation among all 55 participants was enormous, and only a few allowed themselves a short nap during the night. Otherwise work continued on all 14 different digital projects, entirely in keeping with the hackathon’s motto “Eat – S̶l̶e̶e̶p̶ – Hack – Repeat”.

Our project: the “Magic Mirror”

Throughout the event, the “hackathorians” are supported and encouraged in their projects by eight specialists. xappido had the pleasure of delivering the “Magic Mirror” project with three young talents: a magic mirror, meaning a display with a mirror film, with interactive elements, face recognition and voice commands. Our full-stack software developer Lorena and our CEO Sandro supported and coached the three participants throughout.

Voices from the hall

xappido CEO Sandro: “At the halfway mark we are still highly motivated, and I am convinced we will be able to finish the project successfully by the end of the hackathon.”

And organiser David Tassi of ICT-Berufsbildung Zentralschweiz is enthusiastic too: “Companies such as xappido, which support the Young Talents Hackathon as specialists here on site, are actively helping to counter the shortage of skilled workers and to discover and encourage young talent.”

You can see in our video whether the xappido project “Magic Mirror” was finished on time and how the team got through the long night.