Case study: Hacking into health challenges

In 2018, the team at the Hinxton Hall Conference Centre had an opportunity to host a very different type of event. Our Wellcome Connecting Science Courses and Conferences colleagues, were collaborating with the Wellcome Sanger Institute’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship team, to develop a ‘hackathon’ based around informatics and biodata.

In contrast to our usual learning and training activities, which are delivered within a fixed structure with defined sessions, break times for refreshments, and known start and end points, the hackathon event was designed to be as flexible as possible, to maximise innovation and creativity!

Over 100 hackers, assembled as teams, were given a range of scientific and health challenges by a number of event partners including Microsoft, AstraZeneca, and Open Targets. The multi-disciplinary hacker teams included researchers from both the academic and commercial life sciences sector, business development experts, user experience specialists, and participants with patient perspectives. These teams were supported by mentors, to answers questions such as, “How can we predict opportunities to repurpose drugs to treat unmet patient need?” and “How can we use mobile technology to transform biological data processing?”. The teams then had 48 hours to focus on these challenges, with the aim of delivering digital and data-based solutions at the end of this time.

With only limited time available, we were able to facilitate hackathon teams working through the night on their challenges, going beyond any event we had previously hosted. We provided a variety of 24 hour catering options including healthy snacks, smoothies and hydration stations; late-night film screenings for multi-taskers in need of downtime; spaces for a quick nap; multiple large screens for sharing the Slack channel; and ensured that there was sufficient wireless data capacity to support the hackers complex programming requirements. The adaptability of our Conference Centre spaces was critical with so much activity going on at once – and as you can see in this video, all of them were fully occupied!

In parallel to the hackers addressing their health and biodata challenges, we were also innovating behind the scenes to support them! Creating and delivering a successful event with these complex operational requirements was only possible because of the organisational skills of our Conference Centre team, excellent communication with the hackathon event organisers, and the responsiveness of our contractor teams who work with us.

Our team of conference and event organisers also appreciate a challenge, and we are always ready to explore a diversity of event requirements spanning multi-disciplinary research events to more informal professional gatherings. Our exceptional venue spaces, and our skilled and experienced team, ensure that we can facilitate your event’s learning and training ambitions, in a wide variety of different formats and circumstances.

If you’d like to know more about our meeting space, facilities and services, please get in touch with our team!