There is an undeniable buzz around the Kinaxis campus as employees are participating in our annual Hackathon event this week. We’ve long been at the forefront of innovation and are proud to say we were one of the first companies to launch an in-memory planning engine which cut MRP run times from days to minutes all the way back in 1986. We also adopted a SaaS model years before our peers, and today more than 50 percent of our patent portfolio is for AI and ML-based innovations.
We pride ourselves on cultivating and creating an environment with innovation at its core and our employee Hackathon is just one of the many ways we do that. This year marks our company’s 40th anniversary and our 10th Hackathon, so we wanted to take a walk down memory lane and revisit some of the themes we have used to get our teams in the hacking mood.
Our first rodeo
Going all the way back to 2014 (when you couldn’t listen to the radio without hearing "Happy" by Pharrell Williams) Kinaxis employees were happy to embark on a new type of community building and problem solving. While this wasn’t our first rodeo around cultivating innovation, it was our first hackathon⏤so we hadn’t quite nailed down the concept of themes as we would in the years to come other than: the first!!
The virtual shift
Flash forward to 2020, when the world was shifting to working from home and events⏤including our Hackathon⏤were forced to take place in a digital space. We decided to embrace the tech focus with the first official theme of retro gaming (think: Space Invaders or Pac-Man.) At this time our global workforce had also grown quite a lot, so the virtual component allowed for more employees to take part, something that all our Hackathons have since incorporated.
Fun fact: Our Hackathon swag, specifically the hoodies like this one, have become integral to the Hackathon experience with many participants buying extras for their friends and family! It’s a bird! It’s a plane!
Spider-Man, Venom, Shang-Chi, Black Widow and The Suicide Squad all dominated the box office in 2021, and our employees suited up with their very own superhero hackathon theme. Flexing innovation muscles and saving the day one supply chain problem at a time.
One small step for man...
After celebrating the Ottawa HQ grand opening in June⏤marking a new era for the company⏤the 2022 Hackathon was all about reaching new heights with its theme: Space.
The new HQ served as inspiration with its unique features designed to help cultivate the right working environment, as well as a refreshing return to in person collaboration as the event fully embraced its hybrid form.
Barbie’s dream team
It was Barbie’s world in 2023, we were just living in it! With an office decked out in pink and teams greeting each other with “Hi Barbie!” it was definitely one for the books.
Your future is whatever you make it, so make it a good one!
This week, we kicked off our annual Hackathon, with the theme being a nod to the iconic film Back to the Future, "Hack to the Future," is bringing employees all around the world together to pitch and develop transformative ideas and celebrate the past while innovating for the future.
Teams will submit projects in one of two categories: AI or open. With the recognition of the value of AI, there was a desire to give a special spotlight to projects using AI tools and techniques. The open category is for all other projects such as those focused on solutions, internal tools, front end, back end, and more.
It’s all in the mind (and the tech!)
We have long been providing companies with the ability to have their products created and delivered seamlessly; removing repetitive tasks from planners' days and providing them with all the tools needed to make choices that result in less harm to the planet.
How do we do that?
With our Maestro platform which is comprised of three layers: a supply chain data fabric connecting internal and external data sources into a single source of truth; an always-on intelligence engine that delivers real-time insights, predictions, and adaptive solutions; and a seamless user interface.
To learn more about our culture, click here.
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