Hack Food Launch Party at Fishburners (Sydney)

This Thursday saw the launch party for HackFood, Australia’s first food-themed hackathon. A hackathon is a weekend-long business building competition and start-up boot camp that aims to encourage its participants to uncover unique digital technology solutions to combat some of the biggest challenges faced in traditional industries Despite the connotations associated with the term ‘hackathon’, HackFood is an all-inclusive event encouraging not just tech developers but passionate entrepreneurs, foodies and chefs to collaborate on ideas and of course, eat delicious food.

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The event began with a networking session for attendees to get to know one another.

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Within this mish-mash crowd could find one’s would-be business partner for Australia’s future biggest food technology business.

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Delicious sliders sourced from Orto Trading Co. were generously supplied by You Chews.

The basement level of Fishburners was as decked out in nautical memorabilia as the rest of the building. Quirky and creative was this unit that houses numerous startups and startups to-be. Chattering continued to echo throughout the room until Liz Kaelin, one of the co-founders of FoodTechAus commanded our attention to begin the panelist discussion of food and technology.

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The panel lineup (from left to right): Ani Green, founder of Fatties Burger Appreciation Society (FBAS), Chris Burrell, admin of FBAS, Alexandra Iljadica, founding director of Youth Food Movement Australia (YFM), Dave Malcolm, co-founder and CEO of Marley Spoon. Panel moderated by Liz Kaelin, co-founder of You Chews.

Liz briefly explained the style and format of a hackathon to the crowd. Over the course of the HackFood weekend, teams will work together and be mentored by some of Australia’s most future-thinking digital and food professionals for their ideas to go from whiteboard concept to a validated digital solution. She then encouraged participation from the panelists through Q&A.

An interesting point to note from Chris was the absolute need for passion and community building within the food industry. This was the approach taken with the Fatties Burger Appreciation Society (FBAS), a true example of organic growth within Facebook, driven by a love for good burgers. A key draw to FBAS is the sheer numbers and the high level of engagement which has allowed Chris to leverage deals from burger establishments for the members of the group. Ani too elaborated on her role as a founder of the group, which began innocuously as a means to share burger recommendations with friends and loved ones.

“Sales is what will generate revenue so you can then change the lives of people through your business,” said Alexandra. She was able to lend valuable insight through her experience in running YFM, a national volunteer-led organisation that aims to build the skills, knowledge and experiences that young people have around food.

Last but not least was Dave Malcolm whose entrepreneurial flair led to the success of Marley Spoon, a business which brings market-fresh cooking back in fashion. Stirred from the panelists presentation, the crowd responds with thought-provoking questions.

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The buzz of excitement did not dissipate when the night came to a close. The conversation and business-building will carry on at HackFood in November where the winning teams stand a chance to develop their business further with $30,000 seed funding from the Slingshot Investment Fund and Simplot Food Innovation Program.

HackFood is on from the 6th – 8th November at Fishburners, 608 Harris St, Ultimo NSW 2007. Tickets to HackFood can be purchased <link=http://hackfood.com.au/>here

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