Hack Belgium Labs · Company in Belgium Tech

Overview

Hack Belgium Labs operates as a Canadian-based company.

In the news

Nothing says "credibility" quite like being quoted by your own company (thanks Henri-Jérôme 😉). On Wednesday I wrote about why we walked away from running open-ended hackathons, and what we're doing differently these days. Over the next six posts, Hack Belgium Labs lays out how we'd actually build a hackathon aroudn the challenges the former Audi site in Forest is likely to run into, from getting the right people in the room to making sure something still exists the Tuesday after the hackathon. So if you're interested in how weLinkedIn · 11 Sept 2026
QuotedHack Belgium Labs@hackbelgiumlabs“The moment to shape the future of the 55-hectare Audi site in Forest is right now. It ends the day the first anchor tenants sign their leases.” Dixit Leo Exter. On Wednesday, he shared why we walked away from open-ended hackathons years ago: if an initiative is not anchored in commercial reality, projects simply die the following week. Today, Hack Belgium Labs takes on challenges that are solvable, urgent, and strategically important. The former Audi site in Forest passes all three. So let’s be honest: Brussels cannot afford another cycle of empty industrial land, standard business parks, and isolated logistics warehouses. With Heylen Warehouses stepping in to redevelop the site, the headline is 3,000 promised jobs. But turning 55 hectares (an area the size of 75 football pitches) into a resilient economic engine is not just about leasing square metres. For decades, that plant was a walled-off fortress cut off from the local commune. The new plans talk about cutting a new through-road across the site, upgrading the Vorst-Zuid rail stop, and opening sections to the neighbourhood. Those are hard physical and political constraints. If you leave that future entirely to closed-door negotiations and top-down master plans, you risk building an industrial island without solving local employment or integration. To show how Hack Belgium Labs would approach an industrial challenge of this scale, we are launching a six-part series breaking down our operational methodology: 1. Discovery and Alignment 2. Challenge Definition 3. Participant Recruitment 4. Programme Design 5. Event Execution 6. Follow-Through Over the coming weeks, we will share how we would manage room politics, cut past corporate PR filters to reach operational heads, coordinate cross-border training between Actiris, VDAB, and Le Forem, and make multi-stakeholder delivery dependable. The verdict: A redevelopment of this scale will not succeed on real estate deals or political goodwill alone. Hack Belgium Labs has the practical expertise, the ecosystem breadth, and the will to accompany this transition. We bring disciplined collaborative problem-solving to the table: ensuring job targets are met, the site knits into the surrounding neighbourhoods, and incoming operators protect their bottom line.+1
The moment to shape the future of the Audi site in Forest is right now. It ends the day the first anchor tenants sign. So I'd like to get a few people together before that day. Not a consultation round, mind you, a working room, with the people who realistically might occupy the site, and those who can help it thrive. Which raises a fair question: why Hack Belgium Labs? The answer starts with something that didn't work. 3 editions, a hundred projects each time, and a handful of survivors For three years, Hack Belgium packed Tour &LinkedIn · 9 Sept 2026

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