HACK//MEAT: REIMAGINE THE FUTURE OF MEAT

Presented by Food+Tech Connect

June 21-23, 2013 // Palo Alto, California

Food+Tech Connect, in partnership with the GRACE Communications Foundation and Applegate, is bringing together technologists, entrepreneurs, creatives, policy experts, non-profit leaders and industry executives to develop technologies and tools that help create a better future for meat.

Over the course of the weekend, teams will work with design-thinking facilitators and industry “steakholders” to rapidly prototype innovative solutions to the way meat is produced, processed, distributed, sold and consumed.

Share your requests for the products and solutions that are most critical for the meat industry on Twitter (hashtag #hackmeat) and Facebook.

Hack//Meat: Accelerating A Better Future Through Hackathons from Food Tech Connect on Vimeo.

HOW

3. LEARN ABOUT THE CHALLENGES

Read the “steakholder” challenge briefs to help you understand the problems and opportunities.

4. MEAT THE “STEAKHOLDERS’

On Friday, June 21, join steakholders, industry thought leaders and your fellow hackers for a carnivorous kick-off dinner to learn about the weekend’s challenges, match skills with needs and begin forming teams.

5. PROTOTYPE

From June 22-23, groups will self-organize and work with “steakholders” to prototype innovative solutions to their challenges. Facilitators from  The Design Gym  and the Institute of Design at Stanford will be working with groups to help facilitate ideation and product development.

6. DEVELOP

Winning projects will receive resources to continue development after the hackathon, such as money, partnerships, and/or marketing and business strategy mentorship.

Event Co-Host & Organizer:
Food+Tech Connect is a media and research company building a network for innovators transforming the business of food. Through news, analysis and research, we help people identify and understand market needs, emerging technologies and successful business models. Through events, we connect the leading thinkers and doers from the worlds of food, agriculture, health and technology.

Sponsors & Partners

For more than 25 years, Applegate has been producing high-quality natural and organic hot dogs, bacon, sausages, deli meats, cheese and frozen products.  Natural can mean many things, but when Applegate says their products are natural, consumers are guaranteed that the meat inside is:

• Raised without antibiotics or hormones
• From animals fed a vegetarian or 100% grass diet and treated with humane animal standards
• Free of added chemical nitrites, nitrates or phosphates
• Free of artificial ingredients or preservatives

Gold Sponsors:

Supporting Sponsors: 

Facilitation Partners: 

Media Partners: 

Butchery Demo & Travel Sponsor: 

Food & Beverage Sponsors: 

Prize Sponsors: 

API Partners:
                    

JUDGES & MENTORS

JUDGES

MICHIEL BAKKER
Director, Global Food Services, Google

BILL NIMAN & NICOLETTE HAHN NIMAN
Founder, Niman Ranch; Ranchers, Authors

ANYA FERNALD
CEO, Belcampo Meat Co.
@anyafernald

NIKO HRDY
President, Valley Oak Investments
@nikohrdy

AMOL DESHPANDE
General Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

MENTORS

STEPHEN MCDONNELL
CEO, Applegate
@applegateceo

ANDREW ROSENTHAL
Business Development, Jawbone UP
@rosenthal

WAYNE SUTTON
Co-Founder, Cosemble
@waynesutton

BEN LEE
Director of Business Development, CircleUp
@benslee

MARK HAAS
Director of Procurement, Annie’s Inc.
@markjhaas

MIKE FAVER
Plant Manager, Fare Resources
@FareResources

MITCHELL DAVIS
VP, James Beard Foundation
@beardfoundation

MARYAM ALY
Engineer, Foursquare
@maryamaaly

ADAM SALOMONE
Associate Publisher, The Harvard Common Press
@adamsalomone

MATTHEW SADE
Founder, Fork In The Road Foods

KRYSIA ZAJONC
Co-founder, Local Food Lab
@localfoodlab

MICHELLE RITCHIE
Founder & CMO, Delicious Karma
@MDeliciousKarma

SUSANA CRESPO
Agriculture Specialist, Esri Industry Solutions
@AgMapper

CARRIE OLIVER
Founder & CEO, The Artisan Beef Institute
@ArtisanBeef

JONATHAN BLOCK
Founder & CEO, TheHub.fm
@TheHubfm

KATE KENNEDY STOLARCZYK
Director New Business, Velocidi @nurishk8

EVE COHEN
Farmer & Market Outreach Coordinator- Northwest/Central,  Animal Welfare Approved
@AWAapproved

ELIZABETH  Ü
Executive director, Finance for Food and Author, Raising Dough: The Complete Guide to Financing a Socially Responsible Food Business
@foodfinance

ROB O’DONNELL
VP of Digital Media, Applegate
@rodonnell

NAITHAN JONES
CEO, AgLocal
@NaithanJones

MARISA GUGGIANA
Co-Founder, The Butcher’s Guild, Author, Primal Cuts
@gugg

TIM WEST
Co-Founder, Cosemble
@timmywest

SIAN MORSON
Founder & CEO of Kollective Mobile
@xianamoy

LAURA ROGERS
Director, The Pew Charitable Trusts
@SaveAntibiotics

GOVIND KABRA
Engineer, Foursquare
@kabragovind

JOSH WENDEROFF
Senior Officer, The Pew Charitable Trusts

MATTHEW WISE 
CEO & Cofounder, Cosemble
@mattovator

ALEX CORNELL
Co-Founder & Creative Director, Firespotter Labs
@alexcornell

BRAD CECCHI
Exexcutive Sous Chef, Grange Restaurant

BRUCE AIDELLS
America’s Meat Guru
@BruceAidells

MIKE LEE
Innovation and New Ventures, Chobani
@mikel_ee

JIM BARRY 
Program Manager, Esri Developer Network
@JimBarry

DANIEL KRAMER
Chief Operating Officer
Marin Sun Farms
@Marinsunfarms

HAVEN BOURQUE
Principal of HavenBMedia
@havenbourque

MATHAIS LANNI
Digital Marketing Strategist, Velocidi
@velocidi

MATT ROTHE
Co-Founder, FEED Collaborative & Consulting Associate Professor, Stanford d.school
@mattrothe

BECCA BROWN
Communications Specialist, Applegate
@Beccbrown
 

Prizes

With a combined estimated value of over $125,000,  these prizes are designed to help groups continue development of their prototypes and reward their hard work.

THE HACK//MEAT GRAND PRIZE

Estimated value: over $70,000
Awarded to the team that develops the best overall hack, combining business strategy, design, technology, and social good.

• The Stephen and Jill McDonnell Food System Hacker Award: $5,000 in cash plus two hours of personalized mentorship from Stephen McDonnell, CEO of Applegate

•  Two hours of personalized mentorship from Ali Partovi, an angel investor, startup advisor, and serial entrepreneur. Ali is also a co-founder of computer education non-profit Code.org, and an active investor in sustainable food systems

• A half-day digital marketing strategy session from Velocidi, an award-winning digital marketing team that collaborates with established and emerging brands to grow audiences and bottom line

• One year of unlimited classes or workshops at General Assembly for each team member. Check out the full listing of programs here

• Two tickets to the James Beard Foundation’s annual Food Conference: The Paradox of Appetite: Hungering for Change

• Carhartt jackets for every team member
‪‪

• A scrumptious meat box of organic pork & beef from Llano Seco Rancho for every team member

THE BEST BUSINESS AWARD:

Awarded to the hack that presents the best business strategy for responsibly scaling the sustainable meat industry.

• The Stephen and Jill McDonnell Food System Hacker Award: $2,500 in cash and two hours of personalized mentorship from Stephen McDonnell, CEO of Applegate

• 2 hours of personalized business mentorship from Paul Matteucci, a partner at US Venture Partners, and an noted investor in sustainable food & technology

• A half day business strategy session from Fare Resources, a collective of consultant-entrepreneurs with a mission to create and support businesses that value economic, environmental and social responsibility

• 5 hours of personalized mentorship from David Dunne, CEO at Velocidi

• Carhartt jackets for every team member

• A scrumptious meat box of organic pork & beef from Llano Seco Rancho for every team member

THE BEST SOCIAL GOOD AWARD:

Awarded to the hack that best addresses a social need by encouraging more responsible production and consumption of meat.

• The Stephen and Jill McDonnell Food System Hacker Award: $2,500 in cash and two hours of personalized mentorship from Stephen McDonnell, CEO of Applegate

• A half day of social entrepreneurship and design thinking consulting with the FEED Collaborative at Stanford, an ecosystem of innovation for solving the food system’s most challenging problems

• Carhartt jackets for every team member

• A scrumptious meat box of organic pork & beef from Llano Seco Rancho for every team member

THE BEST DESIGN AWARD:

Awarded to the most beautiful, fluid, and user-friendly hack.

• 5 hours of personalized mentorship from Jon Rygh, Chief Creative Officer at Velocidi

• 3 hours of UX consultation and strategic introductions from Alexis Finch, Lead UX Mentor at WIMAccelerator and strategy consultant for startups in SF, Chicago and NYC

• A curated collection of meat-centric items from Delicious Karma, a new website featuring exceptionally delicious, unique, all-natural artisanal and gourmet foods

• Carhartt jackets for every team member

• A scrumptious meat box of organic pork & beef from Llano Seco Rancho for every team member

THE BEST USE OF TECHNOLOGY AWARD:

Awarded to the hack that makes the best use of tech tools and data available at the event or found through other sources.

• A butchering class with the head butcher at Belcampo Meat Co.

• 3 hours of UX consultation and strategic introductions from Alexis Finch, Lead UX Mentor at WIMAccelerator and strategy consultant for startups in SF, Chicago and NYC

• Carhartt jackets for every team member

• A scrumptious meat box of organic pork & beef from Llano Seco Rancho for every team member

Bonus Prizes from our API Partners:

The Esri Award

The team that makes most creative and effective use of Esri’s ArcGIS maps, apps, data, or APIs will receive $500 cash and two registration passes to the 2014 Esri International Developer Summit, in Palm Springs, CA, along with their own speaking slot scheduled into that conference’s agenda. More information

The Yummly Award:

The top three teams that make the best use of Yummly’s recipe API will win 1-year access to its top API Plans. Respectively, teams will be eligible for the Master Chef, the Executive Chef and the Sous Chef plans. More information

Winning Hacks

Grand Prize Winner: FarmStacker, an eHarmony or AirBnb-like tool that aims to make it easier for young farmers to enter the profession through by connecting young farmers to land and capital while utilizing stacked agriculture. Available at farmstacker.com.

Best Business: Cow Share With Us (now Cowtippr), a purchasing platform that facilitates group buying of whole animals, has created a CSA (Community Shared Agriculture) like model for whole animal purchasing in which the minimum order is 10 lbs. Available at cowsharewithus.com.

Best Social Good: Buyotic, a mobile app that helps people shop their value by locating antibiotic-free meat and making an online commitment to purchase it. The team hopes to build a community of one million empowered consumers. Available at http://slidesha.re/10Lw3F5.

Best Use of Technology: Agent Yum, a Google glass application and iPhone and Android app that allows shoppers to scan food products in the grocery store to deliver GMO and antibiotic ratings. Available at https://github.com/mimming/agent-yum.

Best Design: Beefopedia, a web-based portal that educates consumers on and celebrates the qualities of heritage beef. The website attempts to bring a unique understanding of grassfed beef to a wider consumer audience. Available at http://slidesha.re/14iJqvA.

Esri Award (given to the team(s) that best utilized Esri’s ArcGIS mapping API):

• Stewardship Agent, a database similar to MLS that allows young new ranchers to gain access to underutilized private lands, through a real-estate-type agent.
• Find Pasture, a platform that allows farmers to identify suitable land to buy, lease or share based upon deep data analytics around the type of animal they are looking to raise. Available at http://debarghyadas.com/FindPasture/.

Yummly Award (given to the teams(s) that best utilize Yummly’s Recipe API): Beefopedia Cow Share With Us and Think Meat

Challenges

The following is an overview of the steakholder challenges. View the steakholder challenge briefs in full here.

Applegate: How can the next generation of farmers meet growing demand for sustainably-produced meat?

Natural Resources Defense Fund (NRDC), in partnership with GRACE Communications Foundation: How can we find, recruit and empower a million consumer activists to demand meat without antibiotics?

Butcher’s Guild: How can we make whole animal butchery more profitable through tracking?

American Grassfed Association: How can we create transparency in the bulk buying process for consumers, producers and processors?

James Beard Association: How can we map the taste of meat from different regions, breeds and seasons to help farmers and chefs understand how to maximize deliciousness?

Niche Meat Processors Assistance Network (NMPAN): How can we help producers and processors better communicate and improve efficiencies?

LOGISTICS

Friday, June 21 – Institute of Design at Stanford

6:00   Registration and networking
6:30   Welcoming remarks and challenge presentations
7:30   Dinner with the “steakholders,” Sponsored by Kitchit, with wine tasting by Fine and Rare SF
8:30   Hackers begin forming teams
10:00  Venue Closes

Saturday, June 22 – Institute of Design at Stanford

9:30    Registration and breakfast, Sponsored by Stonyfield
10:00 Design thinking process overview,
11:00  Office hours with mentors and Q&A with “steakholders”
1:30    Lunch, Sponsored by Luke’s Local
2:00    API demos by Esri, Yummly, Foursquare, Dwolla, and Supermarket API.
2:30    Hacking
4:00    Snack break, sponsored by Purple Plant Smoothies
6:00    Office hours and project feedback from business, design and tech mentors
7:30    Nose-to-tail dinner, Sponsored by Google, with beer from Almanac Beer
9:30    Hacking continues
1:00    Venue closes

Sunday, June 23 – Institute of Design at Stanford

9:00    Breakfast, Sponsored by Stonyfield
10:00  Office hours with steakholder, design business and tech mentors
12:00   Lunch, Sponsored by Applegate
3:30    Beef butchering demo by Ryan Farr of 4505 Meats, Sponsored by Estancia
4:00    End hacking and submit final presentations
4:15    Snacks and beer from Peak Organic Brewing
5:00    Team product pitches and judging (3-minute presentations)
6:45    Winners and Prizes announced
7:00    Event Concludes

*Please note, event schedule may be subject to change

LOCATION

Institute of Design at Stanford (d.school)

View The Institute of Design at Stanford in a larger map. Click here for directions and parking information.

SUGGESTED ACCOMMODATIONS

Please review Stanford’s Lodging Guide for a complete list of surrounding hotels, including average price per night.

FAQ

What is a hackathon?

A Hackathon is a short collaborative programming session designed to rapidly develop new ideas and implementations. Usually teams form around common interests, develop a reasonable goal, and devise a plan to use their team’s skills to reach that goal in the time allowed. The time constraint forces teams to “make it work” instead of “make it perfect”, and adds a bit of excitement. [via Cleanweb Worldwide]

Why are hackathons a good thing for the food movement?

While many associate the word with a criminal act, “hacking” actually grew out of the desire of programmers to explore technology systems and find out how they could be re-configured or re-programmed to function in new and better ways. Like the first few generations of computer software and hardware industries, food and agriculture are highly proprietary, consolidated industries. And just as the hacking community seeks to understand how a technology works, people are increasingly looking to know who and how their food is produced.

Do I need to be in the Bay Area to hack?

You may participate virtually, but must have a team member present to be eligible for prizes.

HACK//MEAT RULES

The goal of Hack Meat is to develop innovative hacks that address real-world challenges in the meat industry, whether for the producer, distributor, retailer or eater. The aim is to democratize meat and make it better for our health, the environment and everyone’s bottom line. The following are a selection of rules for the event. Complete rules available on our Hacker League website.

Registration: Online registration ends on June 21, 2013 or when event capacity is reached. Participants are encouraged to register early to secure a spot.

Teams: Both individuals and teams from established organizations are eligible. There will be an opportunity to form new teams or join one during the event.

Source Code and IP: Our goal is to support hacks that could become new products or even companies. Food+Tech Connect and its sponsors and partners make no claim to any intellectual property, source code or applications developed as part of Hack//Meat. Teams are encouraged to either open source their work after the event or to sign a collaboration agreement.

Eligibility: Anyone who is in the business of meat (or interested in being) is welcome to participate.

Start and End Times: Hack Meat officially begins on June 21, 2013 with a kickoff dinner at 6:30 pm. Participants will have until 4:00 pm on Sunday, June 23, to finish and submit their hacks.

JUDGING CRITERIA

A panel of VCs, technology thought-leaders, journalists and industry leaders will award cash prizes and business services to the best technology, business model, design and social good hacks. Prizes are designed to help groups continue working with steakholders to actualize their prototypes. Check back here as we update the exciting prizes we’ll have for our top hacks!

Teams will be judged according to: 

Product Market Fit: Who is your customer? How well does the product fit the needs of the problem the team chose to tackle? How user-friendly is the technology? Is it a complete solution, or do they still have a long way to go?

Potential Impact: How much impact (quality and quantity) could the solution have?

Feasibility of Implementation: What are your barriers to entry or user adoption? How are you addressing those challenges? Who/what are your key partners/resources? What is your rollout strategy?

Innovation: How innovative/creative/unique is the hack? Does the hack employ a new/novel approach to solving the problem?

Sustainability: How efficient and streamlined is their model? Is it scalable and able to meet the needs of a larger audience, even if within a localized structure?

Reality Check: How good is their plan for next steps? How prepared are they to continue their work beyond the event?

Team Pitch: How well did the team explain their solution? How well did the demo communicate how their hack works?

CONTACT

Hack//Meat is a production of Food+Tech Connect. For inquiries, please contact:

Sponsorship: mariana [at] foodtechconnect [dot] com
Press: jamie [at] prcollaborative [dot] com
General Questions: mariana [at] foodtechconnect [dot] com

THAT’S IT. NOW GO REGISTER AND GET READY TO HACK//MEAT.

PRESS

Select Mentions:

Spreading Sustainable Agriculture By Stacking It On Existing Farmland – FastCoExist

Where’s the sustainable beef? Hackers tackle a meaty challenge – GreenBiz

Hacking for a Better Meat System – Modern Farmer

Where’s the sustainable beef? Hackers tackle a meaty challenge – Grist

Could new technology improve the quality of the meat we eat? – Guardian

Hack//Meat Silicon Valley; Top Chef Contestants in WI – Eater SF

Silicon Valley Hackathon Prototypes Future Of Meat – Los Angeles Post

Sustainable Meat Production and Technology Join Forces at Hack//Meat Conference – Organic Authority

Does meat have a future? Let’s hack about it – San Francisco Business Times

Nerds tackle meat problems at Hack//Meat – SF Weekly

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