Mini-Hackathon

Come along for a FREE pre-conference session to learn about hackathons as a methodology for exploring business archive collections.

What happens when you take a format more commonly associated with computer science and technology—the hackathon—and apply it to historical thinking and research design in global history using unique archival and museum collections?

Find out by joining us before the BACS/BAC conference for a free workshop hosted by Kiara King (Ballast Trust), Hannah-Louise Clark (University of Glasgow) and Alix Green (University of Essex)

On the day, we'll work with surrogate archive documents to understand how to set up and run a hackathon.

This methodology was developed as a Global History Hackathon Playbook in 2019 by Dr Hannah Louise Clark from the University of Glasgow and in 2026, BAC and BACS have been using it with business archive collections to explore its potential to foster academic and archivist collaborations.

The idea is to be curious and collaborative: bring your own perspective, make connections with others and see what unexpected questions or stories emerge from the collections. There's nothing you need to prepare in advance – just come ready to explore, discuss and experiment together.

You can read more about History Hackathon's here:

global_history_hackathon_playbook_version_1_1 and see a real-life example here: Bugs, Bullets, and Brains: Global History Hacking the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow – Heritage Blog This is a pilot so we will be gathering feedback on the day to help develop a framework for business archive hackathons