Official Zooomr Blog

Many people and organizations have a hard time saying good things about their competitors, but I have no problem in saying that Yahoo’s Open HackDay06 was quite cool and life changing.

I think the best thing that describes Yahoo! is family — Yahoo is an amazing, close family that was gracious enough to open themselves up to over 450 outsiders (including myself) over the last two days from the lowest levels to the very top. The following is part one of my experience at Yahoo’s HackDay06.

Riding VTA LightRail to Yahoo! Hack Day Hosted on Zooomr

My first day of the event started off by biking from my place to the Mountain View VTA Lightrail and quite honestly, I didn’t know what to expect over the next two days, who I would meet or who I would befriend. As I rode on the lightrail train toward Yahoo!, I put my mind into a state of neutrality — After all, over the last few months I had been competing with the very same company. Two beeps and the doors opened at Lockheed Martin Station. “Let’s do this right.” I thought.

Welcome Balloons @Y! Hack Day Hosted on Zooomr

Yahoo!’s Stage Hosted on Zooomr

As I rode-up and into Yahoo’s campus, something sincerely changed. It was then when I started to have a more firm understanding and respect of Yahoo — People around the campus were focused on their work, but were executing it in full swing not as a team, but as a family.

As it turns out, I got to Yahoo! a bit too early, though that didn’t stop one Yahoo! employee named Ken from spotting and leading me inside building C so that I could sit down upstairs to relax.

Signing-Up Signs @ Y! HackDay Hosted on Zooomr

This family was in full swing, moving tables and putting-up signs. There were many times where I felt like helping, but these Yahoos had everything quite under control.

Registration @ Y! HackDay06 Hosted on Zooomr

Around 9:15, I got in line to sign in. Heather Champ signed me in and the Ken whom I had met earlier gave me some goodies including a mug, t-shirt, flash drive and an assortment of jellybeans in a quaint Yahoo adorned container.

Kevin Burton @ Y! HackDay06 Hosted on Zooomr

I scouted the room for people whom I knew and quickly found Kevin Burton — we chatted for a bit and then one of Kevin’s friends came up to say hello. “Hey, you’re Kristopher Tate, right?” he asked. “Yeah, that’s right.” I replied. We chatted for a bit about Zooomr and how we handle events and our terms of service. The conversation was going so well that I didn’t even ask for a name. After this new face walked off, Kevin asked me if I knew who I had just spoke with. I said no, and Kevin quickly came back to me saying “Oh, that’s Andy Baio, creator of Upcoming.org”.

Andy Baio @ Y! HackDay Hosted on Zooomr

Soon after, I attended Andy’s talk and he opened it up saying that he had met some new people from outside Yahoo that he wasn’t so sure about before hand. He said, “I just met Kristopher Tate, and he’s actually a pretty alright guy!” We all chuckled for a bit. His talk was quite good and it echoed why Upcoming was at the height of its game.

Building Corridor @ Y! HackDay 06 Hosted on Zooomr

Afterward, I came back into the same corridor where I would occupy most of the next 18 hours, meet 3 other awesome people, build Lingo! and win a first place prize in front of the world — along with meeting many other awesome Yahoos along the way.

Part Two to come later today.

-Kristopher

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 1st, 2006 at 1:40 pm and is filed under Adventures, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.