INSTANT SOFTWARE SOLUTION – Tahrir ST.

Very Disappointing Experience

Honestly, this was one of the worst-organized experiences I have ever attended.

The event was an AI Hackathon in Creativea Tanta, Gharbia, and unfortunately, the overall organization made the experience much harder than it needed to be.

At the beginning, things seemed fine, but several issues started becoming obvious throughout the program. One major problem was the lack of proper internet access. We were given a username and password for one device to create a hotspot, but the hotspot frequently did not work properly with our laptops. As a result, many of us had to rely on our own mobile data. It was disappointing that this was not properly coordinated with Creativea beforehand, and reliable internet was only provided on the final day.

Another issue was the lack of sufficient working time compared to the number of sessions. We were expected to attend sessions while also developing our projects, but the schedule did not realistically give us enough time to complete the work properly.

The biggest problem, however, was the final judging day.

According to the original agenda, Thursday was supposed to be the final project submission day. Yet, just before the final day, we received several conflicting announcements about what would happen. We were told different things multiple times, including that we would submit online from home, then that we should come in person, and then that submissions would take place throughout the day. Messages were even deleted and replaced, which left everyone confused.

Eventually, we were told to come at 9 AM to submit. We arrived early and prepared to present, but we were kept waiting for hours. Although we arrived at 9 AM, the presentations did not actually start until around 2 PM.

What made the situation even more frustrating was the judging process itself. The judges initially told teams that they would have around 10 minutes for their presentation before moving on. However, the process ended up taking significantly longer, with some teams being kept for much more time. This caused a huge delay for everyone waiting.

I was one of the last teams, so I personally stayed there from 9 AM until around 9 PM — 12 hours.

And after all of that, we found out that the judge was actually attending remotely through Zoom.

We were physically required to stay at the venue for the entire day, waiting for hours, only for the judging itself to happen online. If the judge was going to evaluate us remotely through a camera anyway, this could have easily been organized online from the beginning and saved everyone hours of unnecessary waiting and exhaustion.

The constant changes in instructions, lack of reliable internet, insufficient working time, extremely long waiting periods, and the way the final judging was handled made the entire experience unnecessarily stressful.

I genuinely feel that a lot of the effort, time, and energy we put into our projects was overshadowed by poor organization and communication.

I hope future editions of the AI Hackathon at Creativea Tanta improve their planning, coordination, communication with participants, time management, and especially the final judging process.