“The Artifact is currently hidden in an ancient fortress near Antwerp. At 28/11 you have the opportunity to unlock it & reveal the truth behind.”

We invite 300 creatives and strategists to think about new marketing techniques, customer journeys, video shoots & brand storylines to help us discover what “the artifact” – this year’s theme – is all about.

28/11

Creator Day

Breakfast &
Registration

08:00
Meet the
Artifact

08:30
Unlocking the
Artifact

09:00
Lunch

12:00
Unlocking the
Artifact

12:30
Pitches &
Surprise

16:00
Revealing
the Winners

18:30
Food, Drinks
& Music

19:30

Discover the creative challenges

Virtual Reality

UX / UI Design

Tech & Business

Entrepreneurship

Service Design

Digital Product Design

Gaming

Visual Storytelling

Virtual Reality

The world is changing. Over an invisible web spanning across nations a mysterious energy flows called ‘creativity’. Converging on Fort V, Edegem it resonates through an unidentified object of unknown origin. It is up to your team to come up with an interactive experience (original concept / a visual presentation / technical demo) to solve the riddle of the artifact and unlock the power that’s inside. Time is limited, but we make sure you get a care package to start like the challenge like a rocket machine. Are you ready to create an amazing experience?

Prior knowledge: Unity, content pipeline (check prefab workflows in Unity 2018.3.0+), some knowledge of C# and StemVR in Unity is a plus. Bazookas will help you at the event with technical questions about the implementation in Unity & accompanying tools (Visual Studio, 3ds Max, Photoshop, Audition, Unity)

Tools: Laptop & Unity 2018.3.0+. If you are a programmer: Visual Studio 2017 or later (e.g. Community Edition), if you are an artist: Photoshop & 3ds Max or Equivalent.

UX / UI Design

Step by step, researchers from all around the world are discovering more and more about the artifact. Your help is needed to design a secret platform where researchers can share this very delicate information with each other.

For who: Creatives that want to create digital products and discover the world of user experience design.

Prior knowledge: Product design, Interaction design, Grafic & Digital Media design, a fair amount of empathy & creativity and a laptop with prototyping software (Sketch, Axure, Marvel, Adobe XD, InVision Studio etc.)

Tech & Business

It is not yet clear what the artifact encompasses, although we do have some leads we can pursue. It seems to be having an impact on our connectivity, and we notice some strange network behaviour. Our own infrastructure is giving signs of advanced intelligence, and it looks as if it is trying to tell us something. We might be onto something here….

Can you and your team assist us in finding out what this is all about? We would like to use the artifact - if possible - to help us in creating infrastructure innovative solutions… So, the question is: are you ready to take on the infrastructure entrepreneurial challenge?

Prior knowledge: Entrepreneurship, infrastructure & data center basics (networking, security, storage…), marketing, innovation thinking.

By the way, if you win the Tech & Business challenge, you can also win something extra! Did you know the Vibe Awards?

You have an exciting idea and want to start your own company without the typical financial burdens? Then try to win your golden ticket to the Vibe Awards, the award for entrepreneurial IT talent, where the best pitches win their own company! More information: vibeawards.be Let us inspire you during several workshops given by professionals. We will educate you in all skills needed to become a successful entrepreneur. Along the way we craft a business plan which you will be able to pitch to a jury at the end of the course.

The best pitches win their own company!

For more information see vibeawards.be.

Entrepreneurship

The artifact is filled with secrets, ready to be unleashed to the world when your colleagues manage to unlock it. You and your team need to come up with a way to harness & scale its potential into a social business. Are you ready to take on the entrepreneurial challenge?

Prior knowledge: Business Strategy, Innovation Thinking, creative mindset

Service Design

After thorough analysis of this mysterious object, experts have decoded a message from the signals emitted from it: “We’ll arrive on November 30th 2018".
Little is known about the senders of this enigmatic message, but teams of specialists are preparing to welcome them on our planet the day after the Hackathon. As part of the Service Design team, your task will be to discover as much information as possible about these unknown visitors and design a service to welcome them in the best possible way.

Digital Product Design

Our intel shows the artifact is emitting signals at an increasing rate. We've also observed it's surface temperature gradually increasing for no apparent reason. Analysts believe it's building toward a climax event, though what kind remains a mystery. We need a plan if things go wrong. We must prepare for whatever comes next. Your job is to read the signs, predict the future, and develop a solution. Are you up to the challenge?

Prior knowledge: Interface design, Atomic design, interaction design

Tools: Sketch, Photoshop, paper prototyping, laptop (what a UX/UI designer need for his job)

Gaming

The pulses the artifact is emitting seem to be making different complex rhythm and sound patterns. It sounds like the device is sending out a message or maybe something inside the artifact is causing it to make these sounds. We tried capturing it with sensors but the pulses destroyed any sensor we threw at it. So we need to capture these tones, that rhythm and the intensity manually. Set up "tools" (can be soft and hardware) that will help a researcher to capture the different pulses (timing, tone and intensity), keep the error margin in check and visualize a result. it is important that anyone watching the result can recognise the pattern.

Prior knowledge: It helps to have programming skills, but we also need 2D/3D artists, as well as designers who can work on the concepts. It will be teamwork :)

Tools: laptop, Unity for the devs, 3D or design software for the graphic artists and lots of coffee for the mechanical designers

Visual Storytelling

Expert analysis of the hieroglyphs on the Artifact’s surface has revealed an encrypted language of unknown origin. There are various interpretations of the message, but most specialists share the same opinion – The text appears to outline major milestones of human history, from before the time of Babylon up to ancient Rome’s conquest of Egypt around 40 B.C.

Our next step is to familiarise ourselves with this new language and continue the narrative. As a master storyteller, it is up to you to use the hieroglyphic alphabet and complete the message to tell the story of mankind. If we can relay the complete text back to wherever it came from, we will be a one step closer to unlocking the artifact.

Tools: Pencil & paper, Photoshop / Illustrator, Laptop

Prior knowledge: Human history, storytelling, illustration, concept design

Hack The Future could not be possible without all the companies that are creating crazy challenges for you! We look forward to receive them during the event:

Creator Day

Discover the creative challenges

Virtual Reality

UX / UI Design

Tech & Business

Entrepreneurship

Service Design

Digital Product Design

Gaming

Visual Storytelling

Participating Companies