Four days, 90+ participants and 32 amazing projects. I’d have to say our annual Hackathon held here at Kinaxis recently was a huge success! So what exactly is a Hackathon? It’s an intensive but exciting week where our product team gets to set aside their regular duties and work on their own ideas related to our RapidResponse software. From new capabilities to improving processes and efficiencies, the goal is to get creative and show what you can do. And wow, am I ever impressed! I certainly didn’t envy the job of our eight esteemed judges who were tasked with narrowing things down to our top six finalists, and then ultimately choosing the winner. We had a great turnout of Kinaxis employees to watch the six finalists present their projects. While I can’t go into specifics for obvious reasons, the themes included industry hot topics like sustainability, data visualization, integration, user adoption, and mobile functionality. Incredible projects aside, what I loved most about our Hackathon week was the sense of comradery it built. Yes, there was a healthy dose of competition, but there was also a spirit of teamwork. People from across departments were helping each other out to get the projects finished within the four day deadline. Some more ambitious staff even stayed overnight! Through it all there were fun games, delicious snacks (I’d join the development team just for those!) and tons of opportunities to get advice and feedback. We even had an awards ceremony where teams won some very enviable prizes. Congratulations to team Bits Please! who claimed top honors, and to all the teams who took part. I am completely blown away by what you were able to create in such a short period of time. I wish I had your skills! The entire Hackathon experience really drives home why Kinaxis is such a great place to work. Since joining the team I’ve had ample opportunity to take part in some very challenging but rewarding work, explore my own creative ideas, get feedback from peers, management and executives alike, and learn what it means to be part of a work family! I’m not sure I’ve ever felt as supported and appreciated as I do at Kinaxis, and from conversations around the cubicles, I know I’m not the only one who feels that way!
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