Never had a company Hackathon? Here's why you should.

This week is one of the biggest in the musical instrument industry as tens of thousands of people attend the NAMM trade show in Anaheim, CA. While the Reverb booth will soon be bustling, it's far from quiet here at HQ. This week, we are hosting our first-ever Hackathon. What is this Hackathon, anyway? The entire Dev & Product teams hit pause on existing projects for the week to work on a bunch of "smalls", as we like to say, that can be knocked out in a week or less.

So, how are the projects decided? Last Friday, we held a meeting in our basement where anyone in the company could come and pitch ideas. All are jotted down and then members of the Dev & Product teams disperse across the room, syncing up with people whose ideas they're interested in bringing to life. If there's enough interest in a particular project, it's adopted. I personally pitched 2 ideas and was ecstatic that my coworkers were gathering around me to get involved in both! Immediately, ideas were flowing and you could feel the energy & excitement in the room.

We're halfway through the Hackathon and I can already say that this has been one of the most rewarding experiences I've had in my 3 years at Reverb. I've had the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues I don't usually work with & it's been so special to watch us all come together and share the different perspectives our roles afford us. There's truly a sense of accomplishment as each project gets closer and closer to production. The results of Hackathon will undoubtedly be beneficial for our users, but it's impossible to deny what a positive effect it has had on our team. Already counting down the days until Hackathon 2.0!