Bonnier R&D Organizes Hack Day

Hack Day speaker Ted Valentin

Call it an unconference. That's how Paulina Modlitba Söderlund of Bonnier R&D describes the upcoming March 11-12 Hack Day, an event that aims to develop new business ideas. "Instead of the usual set of speeches and presentations, the Hack Day is more about getting interesting people together and inspiring them to create something new and make the event exciting and worthwhile," she says. In this case, the Hack Day will be for 30-40 participants working in 10-15 teams. Most of those taking part will be from within Bonnier-owned companies. "There will also be five or six external speakers talking at the very beginning of the conference," says Söderlund. "Then they will be working in teams just like the rest of the group." Among the speakers will be Chris Thorpe, development advocate for the Guardian newspaper in the U.K. and Ted Valentin, founder of the 24 Hour Business Camp.

The groups will have 24 hours to develop an original business concept that will be presented to a jury that includes Sara Öhrvall, director of R&D at Bonnier. "It will really just be an 'elevator' pitch to the jury at the end of the Hack Day, something really short," says Söderlund. A winner will be announced the following week.

The concepts developed during the Hack Day will belong to the individual companies that the participants work for, since it is being done during the work day. "The reason for the Hack Day isn't just to develop new business concepts," Söderlund says. "We also want to recognize people for their creativity and entrepreneurial thinking and give them a source of inspiration. Plus we hope that this fosters thinking across traditional boundaries and companies."

While the Hack Day for logistical reasons will be mostly Swedish participants - at least one group from abroad will be from Denmark, Söderlund says - the hope is that the concept will be used in other regions as well, such as the U.S., Finland, Germany, etc.

To find out more about Bonnier R&D's Hack Day, contact Paulina Modlitba Söderlund at paulina [dot] soderlund [at] bonnier [dot] se.

(Photo by Flickr user Pauspling, CC-licensed)