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What to Expect from FoundryLIVE 2025 BUILD

You’ll enter via these doors into the main reception, and we’ll have greeters sign posting you to the Hospitality Lounge on the second floor (you can arrive via the stairs or lifts).

  • There is step-free access at this entrance.
  • The main door(s) open(s) automatically (away from you).
Alexander Stadium Main Reception

Before you make your way upstairs, you could stop by the cafe on the left hand side of the reception desk:

Entryway to the Cafe

Once on the first floor, our friendly reception desk will be here ready to welcome you into the event. Here you can collect your name badge, lanyard and sign in!

FoundryLIVE Reception Area

If you’d like to explore the venue further, before the event, you can access the 360 tour here: Alexander Stadium | Birmingham City Council


We’re using a large open conference space for the FoundryLIVE event and expecting between 100 and 200 colleagues so when you arrive the room may feel busy. Rest assured, we have Greeters ready to meet you and take you to where you need to be.

We’ll also have cards on each table identifying the team that are using each space. If you’re struggling to find your people, ask someone for help. You’ll also have access to flipchart paper, pens, post-its and 1 desktop monitor on a stand.

After the opening speech, teams will start to self-organise and plan for the three days ahead. What this looks like very much is dependent on the team, whether you’ve met before the day etc. You might experience:

  • Defining Users and Personas: Teams create detailed user personas to understand the needs, behaviours, and goals of different user groups within the council.
  • Documenting Requirements: Teams gather and document functional and non-functional requirements for their AI-driven solutions, ensuring they meet user needs and council objectives.
  • Agile Methods: Teams adopt agile methodologies, such as daily stand-ups, sprint planning, and retrospectives, to manage their work.
  • Ideation Activities: Team generate and discuss ideas, using tools like whiteboards, sticky notes, and digital platforms.
  • Prototyping: Hands-on activities where teams develop and test prototypes of their ideas.
  • Pitch Presentations: Teams present their solutions and prototypes to a panel of judges or stakeholders for feedback.
  • Problem-Solving Challenges: Teams tackle specific challenges or case studies related to council operations and services.
  • Feedback and Iteration: Continuous feedback loops where teams refine their ideas and prototypes based on input from mentors and peers.
  • Networking and Team-Building: Social activities to build rapport and foster a collaborative spirit among participants.
BUILD team working together
Lots of visible work
Example of ways of working


At the end of the three days, we do playbacks in our teams for a judging panel and our event colleagues.

Judging Panel from FoundryLIVE 2024
Presentation led playback
Using the work from the days playback

The playback usually covers:

Introduce the team

  • Briefly introduce your team and the hackathon theme.

Problem statement:

  • What problems are we solving?
  • What is the current situation?
  • Include user personas if you have them.
  • Did you capture user stories? Requirements? “Jobs to be done”? What did you prioritise?

Solution

  • Explain your proposed solution and how it addresses the problem.

Demonstration

  • Show a demo of your solution in action.

Any future work identified

  • Outline any future plans.
  • Are you going back to Foundry Board with an update?


And the judges deliberate and announce a winning team (there may be prizes!)