New hackathon open to all creative Cape Town minds

It is designed to improve the skills set of the marketing industry and give all creative, technical-minded and innovative thinkers the chance to tinker, craft and play.

The company launched a series of closed mini hackathons in 2012, where teams of creatives, tech heads and some inspired kids, hacked computers, home appliances and other odds and ends to make things happen.

These 48-hour hackathons provided laughs, learning, awkward selfies and inspired products. They also were the spur for several innovative ideas the company took to market, such as a tweeting badger and an outdoor website.

Reward for music theme

The theme is music and there is R10,000 going to the winners. Judges include Rob Ford, funder and principal of The FWA Network and Ryan McManus, executive creative director of Native.

"If coffee-fuelled, all-out creative, anything goes, musical madness and mayhem is something that interests you, then you're exactly what we're looking for to make this the first in a long line of hack events across the country," said group executive creative director, Mark Tomlinson.

"As with previous hackathons, this will take shape with two straight days of building, breaking, modelling, sketching and creating the ultimate hack with music as its backbone."

Do anything attitude

"The hackathon was launched to celebrate a 'do anything' attitude, one that would see the teams combining simple technology and inspired creativity to produce ground-breaking results," said Simon Spreckley, executive creative director. "That's the way we have approached every brief at the company from the outset and we wanted to foster this philosophy on an industry level.

"With this hackathon, we're taking the concept to the broader industry and the public, and we can't wait to see what creative forces that unleashes."

For more information, go to http://breakmakecreate.com/register and enter or join a team. For those wanting to participate who are not in Cape Town, there will be a satellite hack, complete with video Skype-in for judging in Johannesburg at 47 Juta Street Braamfontein. For more information, go to www.breakmakecreate.com.