Already in the next 6 months along, 212 hackathons are taking place in 108 cities as shared by hackevents.com. Most sponsored by public companies.
Europe first organiser's meeting for hackathons took place this weekend to learn more about sponsorship practices. The event targeted 15 biggest events in Europe and was hosted by Google in the gorgeous town of Munich.
Two participants from each event then got to share experiences they have gathered after raising millions in funds from sponsors in the past.
We were invited to represented Europe largest hackathons, HackZurich.
What Is a Hackathon?
Programming competitions, known also as hackathons, gather talented programers to spend a weekend drafting ideas into working prototypes. Participants then get a slot to pitch their work to a diversified jury with investing experience in different industries. One hard working winner team then takes home a nice prize in the form cash as an incentive to work further on his idea. Then the story repeats next year.
Below you find three takeaways I've gathered from the recent organisers' meeting, highlighting why sponsors choose to participate:
- Terrific Exposure to High Skilled People Capital
Access to high skilled STEM staff remains a challenge for growing companies. Closed relationship with top universities helps, see a recent post. However, more can be done to tap upon skilled developers at the long-tail. Programming events offer a very attractive opportunity for employers to get access to them. Most importantly, they increase a thriving inflow of diverse candidates.
Job walls at events seem to help with this activity. It allows sponsors to share open positions and get access to highly skilled programmers. Without any doubts, this attribute was shared across most hackathons as the #1 reason why to sponsor.
- Sudden Flow of Innovative & Digital Ideas
Never before has the shift towards digitalisation be so imperative to many established traditional companies. From software-driven firms to hardware manufactures, topics such as Big Data, Internet of Things and digitalisation are increasingly driving management attention.
Hackathons are a great way to kickoff such initiatives.
They bring a strong wind full of innovative ideas that lay down stepping stones towards a genuine shift in mindset. Particularly attractive for traditional organisations.
- Strong Media Push
Hackathons prove to be a great source of innovation thanks to numerous actionable ideas that come out of competitions. Thus being present in Hackathons allow firms to foster an environment of innovation.
Although some firms decide to run hackathons on their one, history has shown that taking part of independent ones remains a very effective as well as affordable alternative. Thus, by sponsoring established hackathons, companies gain exposure to an otherwise hard-to-reach resources.
Its clear by now that firms are embracing the genuine value these events provide.
With HackZürich taking place next week, feel welcome to connect in case you are interested to learn more about this amazing event.
Rey Verboonen
Writing about #innovation and #startups | Extracting actionable insights at the interception between business, lean finance analytics and entrepreneurship.
Zurich, Switzerland
about.me/reyverboonen
Made it till here? like & share this article - sharing is loving!
Disclaimer: this article was shared previously in a linkedin Blog.