Meeting in the middle

Inspiration

We were inspired by QRT's global presence across 13 offices and the real business challenge of organizing fair, sustainable meetings. Traditional approaches often default to the largest office, creating imbalanced travel burdens and unnecessary carbon emissions. We wanted to create a solution that treats all team members equally while minimizing environmental impact. The different factors that come into play and to weight and prioritise these factors make it a challenge we thought was worth tackling.

What it does

Our platform provides intelligent meeting location optimization for global teams. Users input their office locations and attendee counts, and the system calculates optimal meeting points that balance travel fairness with carbon emissions using the google map api. The interface presents professional venue recommendations through tripadvisor api and sustainability metrics to support informed decision-making.

How we built it

Frontend: React with Tailwind CSS for a responsive, professional interface Backend: Node.js/Express server handling location calculations APIs: Integration with OpenStreetMap for geocoding and TripAdvisor for venue data Algorithms: Geographic midpoint calculations with attendee-weighted optimization

Challenges we ran into

The primary technical challenge was creating a robust, interconnected system where each component depended heavily on others. File dependencies created debugging complexity, and ultimately, time constraints prevented us from fully implementing the triangulation algorithm. This architectural bottleneck ultimately limited our ability to deliver a complete working prototype.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Despite technical hurdles, we delivered a clean, professional UI that demonstrates the core user experience. The interface makes complex location optimization accessible for business users, with intuitive office selection and clear results presentation. This foundation shows strong potential for real-world corporate applications.

What we learned

We gained valuable insights into system architecture design and the importance of modular development. The experience highlighted how critical it is to manage dependencies carefully in complex projects. We also learned practical lessons about API integration challenges and realistic scope management for hackathon timelines.

What's next for Meeting in the middle

Given more time, we would refactor to a more modular architecture, complete the triangulation algorithm implementation, and enhance the sustainability metrics with real carbon calculation data. The core concept remains valuable for global companies seeking to balance operational efficiency with environmental responsibility in their meeting planning.