Last December, retail chain Future Group hosted ‘Future Datathon’, inviting coders to play a prediction game. Only that it was more than a game. It was hard business.
The participants had to write a code predicting customer behaviour. For example, they had to predict the next 20 products a customer would buy in the coming month.
Essentially, machine learning was taking centre stage, in an unfamiliar terrain.
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Here’s the crux of the matter: Hackathons and coding fests are finding unlikely patrons. Non-technology companies, including those in FMCG, brewer, healthcare, manufacturing and automobiles, are investing in them to generate fresh ideas.
Over 7,000 people have registered for Enzen’s ongoing innovation challenge that opened in June. The global energy and water solutions provider is crowdsourcing ideas from participants through technical, business and social platforms.
Last year, AB InBev, a multi-national beverage and brewing company, organised a hackathon in Bengaluru with retail optimisation as goal. Coders had to hack to gauge return on investment and change in prices and also build a tool to support data visualisation.
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According to a report by HackerEarth released in 2017, hackathons have become a great tool for idea generation.
That year, after the United States, India held the second position in conducting hackathons. Cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderabad were among the top 10 cities in the world for the number of hackathons.
Hiring tool
Hackathons are already being used by a huge number of product-based technology companies for hiring freshers and pre-boarding and, in some cases, also for effecting internal promotions.
“Now, many service-based companies are also using the technology platform for hiring fresh talent,” says Sachin Gupta, co-founder and CEO of HackerEarth.
He says hackathons are a win-win for both the employer and employee as it brings greater objectivity to the recruitment process. Moreover, the traditional recruitment is considerably more time-consuming, as it involves many rounds of assessment.
“It also eliminates all kinds of bias related to hiring,” says Gupta.
Branding tool
Coding fests in recent years are also used by companies as a branding tool.
In the run-up to the rolling-out of its first vehicle from its Halol car manufacturing plant in Gujarat, MG Motor India organised a hackathon on ‘How to make transportation safer and cleaner’ at Navrachana University.
The winning teams not only walked away with attractive prizes, but also had the satisfaction of seeing their ideas being put to use.
Brainstorming platform
Hackathon are not just for coders. There are a number of non-tech organisations that run hackathons as a platform for intense brainstorming and generating ideas right from creating a more engaged workplace to solving complex supply chain problems.
“Great ideas can come from anyone, irrespective of their background or education. We have researchers, start-ups, academic institutions, organisations and students participating in our innovation challenge,” says Uma Rajarathnam, Head – Applied Research and Collaboration at Enzen.
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The fact sheet
What is a hackathon?
A coding challenge can go on for a few hours. Or, for a few days. Participants have to come up with a solution to a given problem. A hackathon can be theme-based too — for example, it can be centred around innovation.
What are the different uses of a hackathon?
There can be hackathons conducted internally to help improve the creativity among employees and spot talent. It can also be conducted to find a hire.
What are the essentials of a hackathon?
A venue that will attract many people. An exercise to promote the event. Three, mentors, subject matter experts and probably, some sponsors. You also need to plan on who should be invited, which depends on the agenda for the hackathon.