Field Forward: A Hackathon for Museum Leaders. Challenge: Confronting Workplace Burnout.

We believe the museum field's hardest problems deserve better approaches than we've tried so far. Rapid change and political turmoil has spiraled our already stressed field into cycles of reaction and defensive maneuvering. 

Here's a chance to spend a day CREATING and INNOVATING instead of putting out fires.

So, join us for . . .

One day. Teams of five. One deep-rooted problem desperately in need of fresh solutions: workplace burnout. And an award 🏆to the team with the freshest approach to tackling the problem. 

During this day of friendly competition, you won't find panel discussions, Q&A sessions, or sages on stages. Inspired by the tech world's most effective innovation format, this structured competition puts YOU at the center.

This hackathon is expressly focused on:

1. Participant-driven problem solving that results in one creative “intervention” per team by the end of the day
2. Applying new skills in problem analysis and strategic idea generation that you can use beyond the hackathon
3. Team bonding, networking, and fun in a lightly competitive atmosphere
4. New understandings of the systemic drivers of workplace burnout
5. Solutions that have real potential to improve workplace culture and employee retention. 

Why focus on workplace burnout? 

Most of us in 2026 are coming to work exhausted, overwhelmed, and underappreciated. Eighty-six percent, according to the Center for Effective Philanthropy. If we don’t address the mental health issues head-on, we will continue to see fewer museum professionals taking leadership positions, less courageous innovation in the field, and fewer workers from marginalized backgrounds attracted to this work (since they experience higher levels of burnout). 

Workplace burnout is composed of many causational factors and can seem like too big of a problem to even begin to address. That’s why this hackathon is designed to give participants practice at approaching a complex problem like a scientist, with the goal of taking it apart analytically and targeting pain points with an infusion of creativity. Workplace burnout, like many other seemingly intractable problems, can seem impossible to tackle without the right tools and the will to tackle it. 

Who should register?

• Mid-career museum professionals with enough experience in the field to know what works and what doesn’t. (5+ years of paid museum experience)
• People with a diversity of museum expertise and skills. Great solutions require many kings of expertise - including lived experience. We need creative people, systems people, people-people, evidence gatherers, charismatic leaders, and facilitators, and all the rest. 
• Individuals who want to meet new people (Yes, we’ll place you with a team!)
• Teams of 5 colleagues looking for a fun excuse to work together (Come with your own team, preferably from different organizations - to unlock a broader perspective)

Wait, what’s a “hackathon”?

In the tech world, a hackathon is a focused, time-limited sprint where small teams compete to solve a complex problem using creativity, collaboration, and unconventional thinking. The format was designed to break through the inertia that keeps hard problems unsolved - the kind that regular meetings never quite reach. We’ve taken that format and tailored it specifically for museum leaders.

And no, this is not a tech event. 

Most hackathons you may have heard of invite coders and developers to build apps or digital tools. Your team’s “intervention” may include technology, but this event is not focused on technology. 

Teams might design anything from a new workflow or hiring practice to a board game, podcast, or staff ritual.

Field Forward uses the format of a hackathon - the time constraint, the team competition, the structured problem-solving sprint - and applies it to the human side of museum work.