The story about HolmenHackathon

Our first Bioboosters hackathon with Holmen presented us a possibility to, in the end, turn an unused sidesteam of ash into a value added component in compost production. But beside this the process of finding the best solution gave Holmen a wide variety of different solutions to choose from and was an eye opener for them in understanding that solutions and competence can be found outside the traditional company walls. The solutions varied from drones, chemicals and soil restauration to compost. By participating in this Hackathon, Holmen has taken a step in a new direction of working with company challenges.

For us as organizers it has presented a unique opportunity to start new collaborations with other regional organizations, companies and universities in order to be able to provide the needed support for the solution providers in terms of e.g. mentors.

The support we got from JAMK in planning the hackathon was invaluable and the mentor from JAMK that participated added both new perspectives for the specific hackathon but also new thoughts of future collaboration with us.

In order to have a smooth process during the 5 months of planning the final hackathon we found it very useful to have weekly meetings with the challenge provider. This made sure we were on track and on the same page. Another important success factor was that we as organizers were a team of three. This made us a reliable partner who could move the process forward despite sickness absence etc.

In the autumn of 2024, we will arrange a new hackathon and we are looking for a new challenge provider. We hope to find a relatively big company that has the openness and courage to seek solutions outside the box and can put in the time needed in order to get the most out of it.

Programme Manual Online

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