About

We have all been to the hackathon (or conference) that let us down. The one where a sponsor pulled out of an event two weeks before, where you've survived on four hours of sleep and freezing cold pizza. Where things you built had to be good enough to get a prize or incorporate a sponsor's toolkit. Where the vibe was never about community but a competition.

We were tired of waiting for someone else to make something where independent people who do creative stuff online could assemble to do something. So, we did it ourselves.

Hard Fork Switchboard is a community gathering for makers and creatives, whether it be expressed by drawing, writing, code, or socializing. People who come from general tech meetup culture or hackathons but never quite felt at home there.

There is no corporate sponsors calling the shots on what happens. There is no product to promote. There is no pressure to make something good where you spend 24 hours to impress a judge.

Instead, there are workgroups. They are corners of the event (and venue) that you decide you want to fill and that you decide how you want to shape. You can run a workshop, show off a project, talk about something you love. Just bring an HDMI cord.