How Girls in Tech used Prezi Video to address social issues

Girls in Tech is a nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating the gender gap in tech, with over 60,000 members in chapters all around the world. The San Francisco chapter recently held their fourth annual 24-hour hackathon — Hacking for Humanity 2020. 

While the event went virtual this year, the participants were tasked with addressing a very real problem: the housing crisis in the Bay Area. Ten teams (consisting of 55 hackers) used Prezi Video to propose their creative solutions — here are our favorites. 

Building empathy through social media

The winning pitch from the Girls in Tech hackathon came from Team JKDK with their social media campaign, “How I got here.” They proposed an interactive experience with a series of branching decisions, eventually resulting in a real-world story that aligns with the series of choices the user selected.

The campaign is meant to highlight how even a single decision can lead to homelessness, and help a younger generation develop a better understanding of the housing crisis. Team JKDK made it easy to share with others and donate, providing a strong template for other nonprofits to follow. Watch their pitch here: 

Educating people through workshops 

Team Dry Tortugas sought to help the homeless learn useful skills through workshops. They proposed a service called SkillsMatch to connect organizations with volunteers. The volunteers would create a workshop or sign up for an existing one, and organizations would host the workshops. 

The workshops can cover anything and everything, from wellness-related topics like art and yoga to practical skills like voting registration and financial literacy. Watch their Prezi video for an overview and demo: 

With the help of Prezi Video, the Girls in Tech teams were able to convey their ideas in a compelling, engaging way — even when they were all remote. If you have your own idea to pitch, create a Prezi video and tag it with #Presenting for a chance to be featured on our Video Gallery. 

Previously published on Prezi's blog by Michael Lee