San Francisco's hacking culture is strongly displayed at the Facebook campus where the first AEC Hackathon was hosted Nov. 8-10, 2013.
The Hackathon was half conference, half networking event, all innovation. Attendants from construction companies like Turner and Case mingled with programmers that were outsidethe industry or who had lightly touched it.
Justin Quimby represents a mix of both worlds. Currently an AEC industry consultant who spent years working in the video game industry.
He wore a 3D immersive environment headset called Oculus Rift and showed how the digital environment could be used to show off a yet-to-be-constructed building or campus giving owners an in-depth preview of what is to come.
Quimby and a handful of other experts gave presentations, but the main event was the hack. Attendants broke up into groups at the beginning of the event and chose a problem in the construction industry that needed to be solved. Then over the next two days the groups worked furiously to develop a new software, idea or approach. Some stayed at the campus all night to Hack.
The Facebook campus is replete with enormous motivational posters displaying its entrepreneurial mindset and concentration on quick innovation. One poster reads Move Fast and Break Things, in the same font as the below Fortune Favors the Bold:
On Sunday morning one group gathered around an app they developed over the weekend, seeing if it would work for the presentation.
The iOS app and several web apps and new approaches to construction scheduling came out of the event. The next Hackathon will be held in March, again at Facebook's campus. Hackers are welcome.
