By Riley Kaminer
Get ready to pop the cans of energy drinks, get your laptops charged, and bank some extra hours of sleep – because Miami Hack Week is back from January 29th to February 4th.
This year, organizers expect around 3,000 hackers to descend upon the Magic City to network, build, and get familiar with all that Miami’s startup ecosystem has to offer. And, of course, have some fun along the way (it is Miami, after all!).
While this year is the biggest yet in terms of participants, the Miami Hack Week organizers decided to focus on fewer hacker houses than previously. Each of these 15 houses will have a theme. For example, San Francisco software giant Niantic will have an augmented reality-themed house; while a house in the Design District will be focused on building solutions targeting issues facing the Caribbean.
Last year, web3 was a major theme running through almost every hacker house. This year, the offerings are more varied: covering a range from AI to fintech to healthtech and everything in between. Diversity and equity is also a major focus in 2023, with plans to host a Black at Miami Hack Week celebration of minority programmers, as well as an event bringing together Queer participants and allies and a female-only hacker house.
“Our presence in Wynwood has ramped up significantly this year,” said Ja’dan Johnson, one of Miami Hack Week’s co-founders. New this year will be a Hack Week headquarters on NW 24th Street at the CUBE. Johnson told Refresh Miami that the event will take over 20,000 square feet of space across two floors of the office building through a collaboration with Blockchain.com and Brick and Timber Collective. He also noted that the Hack Week team has been working closely with Wynwood’s Business Improvement District to ensure that participants are shown the best of #MiamiTech.
Also different this year is that Hack Week is open to non-hacker participants, who can come to meet hackers and take advantage of the packed roster of programming. Hackers can be part of a house or float between houses and hang out in other communal spaces around the city, including Solana Spaces and the event’s Wynwood HQ.
While Miami Hack Week is not planning to do a university track again this year, Johnson said that “we are hoping with the expansion of our HQ and the daily workshops and sessions we are doing that students feel empowered to join Hack Week.”
Top events include a Barry’s Bootcamp session led by Founders Fund VC and OpenStore CEO Keith Rabois, daily fireside chats including a soon-to-be-announced YCombinator Partner, a founder-investor dinner with J.P. Morgan, and a big opening and closing party featuring a live DJ.
Already, there are $30,000 in prizes up for grabs – a figure Johnson expects to grow to around $50,000. But the real value can be much more than that, as evidenced by one group last year that ended up getting their Miami Hack Week project acquired by Niantic.
For Johnson, who also leads business development and partnerships for Miami-based Upstream, the Miami tech scene continues to grow. “It’s deliberate, consistent work that will sustain that momentum,” he said, underscoring the inputs required for long-term growth. But Johnson highlighted positive signals that we are moving in the right direction, including a record-breaking amount of VC investment last year.
Are you interested in taking part in this year’s Miami Hack Week? Learn more and apply to be a hacker by visiting their website.
Photos, provided by Miami Hack Week, are from the 2022 event.
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