5 Reasons why #TechChallenge3 Hackathon is epic !

You know when you are in the 'zone' eating, sleeping is not important ! Locked in battle in the digital cyberspace, the only sustenance our #Techchallenge3 super geeks need are the endorphin's released from the glowing screens of their laptop.

What is Capgemini #TechChallenge3 ? - It's a marathon technology competition & hackathon centred around solving digital challenges to identify the best technologists in the country. This was the 3rd edition of the path breaking event from Capgemini. To know more about the hackathon visit the website here

To pull off such an amazing event, I've tried to encapsulate the learning's & reason's why this falls under the realms of legend .. WAIT for IT .. dary !

1. Digital & Technology challenges that matter

In a digital world, there are numerous technologies that we are attached to that create infinite interruption - David Lynch

At #TechChallenge3, it was important to showcase the latest streams of digital technology e.g. Data Science, Data Integration, Blockchain, PEGA, Salesforce, Hybris etc. These technologies not only had the novelty factor attached to it, but made business sense as my organisation is betting heavily on the trifecta of cloud, digital and security.

The second aspect was to solve challenges that matter to you and me not just intellectually stimulating exercises.

One such challenge was to re-imagine the " Digital Shopper Experience" - Create a hassle free shopping & selecting products

2. Superior Candidate / Contestant Experience

Having contestants from different locations in India flying down to our Airoli office and spending 48 hrs requires a lot of planning & execution to create a super candidate experience. Travel logistics, Accommodation, Event Management, Food & Beverages, Venue & WIFI, Internal stakeholder co-ordination, Security etc. the spokes of the logistics wheel that needed to work perfectly. Kudos to the Marketing & Communication team (Shiraj, Raveena, Vishal, Suraj & Team)

3. Leading by Example

You know your leaders are fully behind #TechChallenge3 when they are ready & firing early morning on a Saturday. Our India COO Ashwin Yardi kicked off by sharing fascinating stories about robots writing poetry. Darshan Shankavaram, Digital CoE leader spent the entire day interacting, questioning, offering advice to participants. They reminisced that the vibe at the event was of their college days, sleepless nights, coffee and changing the world.

Darshan, mentioned that one of the teams of the digital challenge showcased live demos of solutions from a consumer POV enabled through chat bots, virtual reality and blockchain for authentication that he & his team hadn't thought of before and was excited to see the possibilities from that thought process.

4. Fun is a 'Serious' value

Who would have thought coding, high level architectural design discussion can happen with our live band Reverb belting out ballads. We did ! it worked wonders. I overheard a friend who creates Hackathon events that they are definitely going to use this idea in their future events. We had gaming stations, foosball, bicycles to break the stress, red bull to keep the contestants awake and tons of food !

5. Hacking Collaboration

At the #TechChallenge3 we did something that was unprecedented ! We wanted contestants to collaborate amongst each other to solve the digital challenge. What were the implications - first, contestants who didn't know each other, second - they were spread across the length & breath of India, third - part of different organisations , fourth - having 48 hrs to hack the problem statement & fifth - trust each other implicitly for the final challenge. We were surprised how quickly collaboration through technology made this possible.

Capgemini #TechChallenge3 Online Hackathon Album

My organisation people promise is to #betheyou. To bring your whole self to the work environment, your strengths, your quirks and your eccentricities. The experience has been intensely personal for me, working with multiple internal SME's, interacting with the contestant to get insights on what they do, some of them are professional contestants in different forms of competition :-), what motivates them, where do they hangout, what are their aspirations? The experience was even more fruitful having friends, colleagues sharing the #TechChallenge3 experience with me.

An epic #TechChallenge3 journey comes to an end. Congratulations to all winners and runner ups. A truly deserved win!

One of the key insights from the hackathon - It's not only the adoption & adaptation of technology that matters, rather harnessing people who can collaborate to create meaningful solutions. At the end of the day, not all of them were winners, what matters is the bonds that were created, the insights that they received from the jury interaction & the camaraderie forged in the depths of battle.

When you collaborate to innovate, magic happens !