By Kate Vogelsang, Birdsong Consultancy
Birdsong Consultancy, a marketing and digital agency in Durham, are running a hack (sometimes known as a business challenge) for Willow Burn hospice, and are looking for businesses and creative people to come along and collaborate for good.
We are looking for graphic designers, local businesses, entrepreneurs, innovators and creatives from across the North East to work together on developing new and innovative solutions to support Willow Burn raise their profile across County Durham.
When is the hack?
The hack will be held at the North East Business Innovation Centre in Sunderland on Thursday 22 February 2018, between 9am and 5pm. It’s a chance to learn from industry experts, network and have fun, but most importantly, help out a really good cause.
And what’s a hack anyway?
Simply put, it is a fast paced event that challenges attendees to make and do. Hacks are events where a problem needs to be solved, and everyone who comes will need to roll up their sleeves and contribute something, whether that is ideas, effort or skills. It’s a chance to innovate, experiment and collaborate and create something that solves a problem, delivering outcomes in a non-typical way. It’s not just about doing business as usual, it’s about making something quicker, or easier or stand out more. Importantly, it’s not an ideas generator or a seminar, but a chance to design, build, develop or write something with like-minded skilled and experienced professionals, and it’s definitely not a seminar, conference or talking shop.
DWP Digital recently held a hack in Manchester which aimed to identify and address the barriers to people applying for jobs, and develop an innovative solution to encourage people to retrain and travel to where the work is. One of my favourite hacks was one I ran in London for a local authority, which aimed to help more older people get online; it was a particularly rewarding event because it had a community focus, with older people from the community there to contribute on the day.
Who should come?
You don’t need to be a marketing expert, or have worked in a charity to come along. All we ask is you give up your day to help Willow Burn with ideas and solutions to their challenge. Not only will you be helping a great cause, but it’s also an excellent networking opportunity and a chance to learn from industry experts.
For further information about the event at the BIC on 22nd February click here
You can read more about the hospice and the plans for the hack at https://www.birdsongconsultancy.co.uk/hospice-hack/