Hi, I really love the conversation, maybe my sharing here about the Hackason we had in Uganda specifically Rwamwanja and Kenya kakuma refugee camp. the goal of the hackathon was to identify solutions specifically from refugees for refugees, train refugees on entrepreneurial skills, and change the mindset from hopelessness to being able to get active and do something to fight the crisis.  In total, we managed to engage 23 participants and 28 in Kenya/Kakuma camp that came up with different ideas to tackle the crisis. in this, I will talk bout our experience and challenges after the journey we did, however, the less financially we were at 150$ but we really made it successfully in both the 2countries. Being the first time we did an online program it was so challenging when it comes to online mentoring all the process, connecting scholars with mentors and trainers was not an easier thing you can imagine, mostly when it comes to refugees, they have not accessed devices, communication, internet connectivity. some of them could have a help maybe borrowing a device from a friend or relative but they were not really able to operating, using like ZOOM, we changed to Facebook workspace until we start using mobile calls with participants using different sim card like MTN, AIRTEL, Africell, etc.. and again in deferent countries. As you know a challenge is a great opportunity and learning for social entrepreneurs, in this journey we were able to learn that everything is possible as long as we commute ourselves to take risks and learn from the experience on the way. we can be able to improve, do impact, and make the world a better place for everyone once we have decided to do something new, move out of comfort. Looking forward to sharing more !!

That's what happens when a team gets a SEIP mentor :)

The great news - my mentored team MeowBest got ticket to the accelerator and won 7000 eur prize to buy equipement 😊 They selected 12 teams from 36 which are going to accelerator :))

@aurmana excited to hear about the results! Mentors plays a huge role in mediation and can extend a conversation with educated questions to consider in a Hackathon! P.S. Love your gif. It’s one of my favorite shows :-)

All the three projects sound very good. :) Good luck with the second day!

The first day of the hackathon came to the end. It was really great, but also challenging because of this technological adaptation process (I needed to find out how to use google meet program and how to find meeting rooms:)). Today I have met with 3 different teams. One was a community social business we were discussing their legal status and social business model; the second one was a sport club for the families with children, we were trying to find out how to convert their business model to social business, Also I started to mentoring one amazing team which sells ecological cats' litter and trying to employ disabled people. I chose to mentor them because I really believe in their idea and they have a great product. I think this factor is the most important (when you mentoring someone or want to become part of the team) - you really need to believe in the idea and see the potential in this. With my team we found what we really need to improve (I won't tell you, it's a secret:). So we will work on that on these few other days. I can't wait to see what the next day of hack will bring to me.

yes, i love this conception, I think it's like this because Kaunas county is subdivided to many municipalities. Not just Kaunas city municipality is involved to this hackathon. And organizers see that these smaller cities have many social problems

I am glad that this event is dedicated to social ideas. My impression about Estonian hackathon events is that they are hopelessly tech related and the mindset is more about how to make 5 people to be a multimillionaire being the next "unicorn". Instead of developing the next photo-sharing app it is time to address the wicked problems of our societies :)

I have very good as well as very bad experiences participating in hackathons over the past years in Estonia (Tallinn and Tartu). And Mentors do play an important part for a good UX. Team dynamics or team leader is critical for it depends on their depth of knowledge and idea/challenge. However, when we participate in hackathons, we want to learn as much as we can, having a very steep learning curve. I have never been a Mentor at a hackathon, but I do have some expectations of mentors. I feel mentors should recognise the 'fire' in the team, the pain points that he/she wants to solve. This recognition should not be diminish but rather through mentors' support/encouragement/technical skills and knowledge and expertise in that topic to boost the team to reach a feasible level agreed during this time-frame. There is always no right or wrong answers, but there is a 'chemistry' formed during this 48 hours of intense co-creation/co-working. Remember respecting the presence of the participants taking their time out to a hack, involvement of the people in the team, doing your 'homework' what level they are and how to develop them in this short time (and possibly you could inspire them even after the hackathon). This is a good article and might serve a good read: https://medium.com/nwplusubc/mentoring-101-your-guide-to-hackathons-349045d9fbe9

I wish you good luck and do come back and share with us your first mentoring experience! :)

haha, I love the .gif :) I hope that you will meet great projects there with strong commitment to social/environmental impact. Good luck for the weekend :)