The Hack Before Christmas - 2024 Hackathon Trophies

Overview

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Our annual Nine Entertainment hackathon wrapped up today after an intense but incredibly fun two days of innovation and creativity. Twenty teams battled it out across various categories, pushing boundaries and developing some truly impressive projects once again.

For the second year running, I built the trophies for our winning teams based on the branding and designs our design team provided for the event. Last year’s e-waste trophies were such a hit so it was only right to double down in 2024.

Building the trophies

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Taking inspiration from our “Hack Before Christmas” theme, I wanted to blend the twisted, whimsical aesthetics of Tim Burton with the tech-noir vibe of The Matrix. The result? Some seriously cool hackathon hardware!

Just like last year, I started by collecting e-waste components - old motherboards, a few Chromeboxes and a bunch of other bits and pieces. My son joined me (again) for the teardown session, who doesn’t like pulling stuff apart?

Using various motherboards, their circuit board patterns creating that perfect tech foundation. For the Tim Burton-esque elements, I created a 3d interpretation of the event logo in Fusion 360 and printed them on the Prusa Mini+.

Each trophy was then hand-assembled, combining the circuit boards with the 3D printed logo and award elements and a fair bit of hot glue.

Presentations

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The trophies found their perfect setting at what was honestly our best hackathon yet. Running on December 5th and 6th, “The Hack Before Christmas” saw our teams push themselves to new heights.

Massive kudos to our hackathon team who absolutely outdid themselves this year. The organisation was flawless, the presenations went perfectly, the live stream for our hybrid and remote staff went off without a hitch.

Gallery

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And it’s a wrap

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There’s something satisfying about transforming technological waste into objects such fun objects. These trophies represent not just the achievements of our winning teams, but also a small statement about reuse and creativity in our increasingly disposable tech culture.

Plus, let’s be honest, there’s just something cool about holding a piece of circuit board art that looks like it could have fallen straight out of “Dark” Christmas Town after Neo hacked the mainframe.

Here’s to the winners, all the participants, and to the incredible hackathon team. Can’t wait to see what we come up with for next year’s event - and the trophies that will celebrate it!