CHIMEHACK — Gucci + Twitter + Women Who Code + UNICEF
Written by Vinu Charanya
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Gucci partnered with Twitter and Women who code and hosted a 3 day hackathon at Twitter office from Dec 5th — 7th 2013(Thursday — Saturday). The event was kicked off with a speech by Adam Messenger, Pat Mitchell, a few other amazing speakers and with the official Chime for Change
video. Shortly thereafter, I met up with my friend Nikita. We were not participating to win, rather to 1) have fun and 2) support the cause to help women and children. Of course having the opportunity to meet our fellow women geeks was an additional perk ☺.
We met with the NGO’s of different challenges to find our focus on what we wanted to hack. Our top interests included: VITAL VOICES and CHIME FOR CHANGE for helping other women; Trick-Or-Treat, a fun app for kids from UNICEF; and UN WOMEN and RIDERS FOR HEALTH.
Nikita and I then met Anna and Yasmin. Together we began discussing the challenges that we found interesting. Sarah joined in the discussion. After only a few minutes, we realized that we all shared the same interests – and our team was set. We took another hour to sort out the details and finalize the theme for our app. It was an exciting first day!
### DAY 2 — ONE KING’s LANE
Sarah and Yasmin were not able to make it to the second day, so things were not looking good for our team. It was stressful. But hey, what fun is a hackathon without complications? Yasmin, introduced us to Mary Ann and Yada. With a brand new team, we faced the challenges of determining the theme of our project once more. We started brainstorming and discussed the skill sets of our team. We did mock ups and wire frames for Chime for Change and the Trick-Or-Treat App. We discussed feasibility and challenges involved. It was one of the best hours of the entire hackathon to see different suggestions coming in, which helped us visualize our app as kit came to life.
As I mentioned earlier, we wanted to have fun, so we chose the Trick-Or-Treat app because we believed it would allow 7 to 8-year-olds have some extra fun on Halloween. With some ideas mind and an ever-growing imagination for the game, we left home on Friday with one thought, “We are gonna have so much fun building this!!”
Day 3 — When it All Happened
I was one of the early birds at Twitter HQ for the hackathon on Saturday and my team members slowly joined me. The night's rest gave us a fresh start, we had great ideas that just needed implementation (yes, this is still a hard part). I started with the repos, a rails server hosted it, and created an Android app skeleton to kick us off. Mary Ann Jawili, Anna Haeger and Yada started with the images and html views for the game. Nikita started with the payment through Paypal for the app. I was working on the backend server, creating web views for the Android app and integrating it all into project. At 4:00 PM, we had a simple game with Paypal and Twitter integration. After a few last minute adjustments, we were all set for the demo.
Our goal was not to fundamentally change the way kids go trick-or-treating; rather, it was to add a game-like element. We achieved this thorough implementing a smartphone and a swipe feature for reading cards, which would still permit traditional aspects of collecting the change or check.
The Demo
We were stage, with the app ready on the simulator and 2 minutes to show what we had. We got so excited! We began explaining our idea, but didn’t effectively manage our time to demo the entire app and before we knew it, it was over. I felt so terrible. How did we do so much work and fail to show it all? My teammates consoled me. We created a good app, we showed the demo and we had fun. It took me a while to snap out of thinking how we could have done better. (In retrospect, it was our first hackathon and mistakes are often good lessons.)
The Results
The judges had made their final decisions. Aza Raskin VP of Jawbone and Linda from UNICEF announced the winners. One of which commented, “It was a beautiful example of using an iconic form for the future, while using a brand children are already familiar with.” It took us a while to realize, IT WAS US WHO WON! We were in shock, our first hackathon and we won!! Then the usual, we took photos and admired each others work.
A Good Start and An Even Better Lesson
I strongly believe that there is something, good or bad, to learn from everything in life.
I learned so many good things from this 3 day event by GUCCI. First, I had a chance to meet great women leaders from Gucci, Chime for Change, Ted Women and other organizations. These women work to make the world a better place for women and children. This event was a great inspiration to me and I feel proud that I had a chance to be a part of something so big. I will support this cause in any way I can.
Second, the importance of teamwork. The success of my first hackathon would not have been made possible without the hardwork of my awesome team Mary Ann, Nikita, Anna and Yada. Most of us work on a team in our day-to-day corporate life. How was this different? In a work environment, you are never given an option, rather you are part of team and over a period of time the team slowly comes together. Meeting with random people and forming a team to hack for 36 hours is completely different. We often had conflicting opinions, while at the same time, we trusted and valued every opinion and made decisions as a team. We came together in a short span and stayed together till the end. The support we shared for each other played a very important factor in our success. We hacked as a team and won as a team. If you can work as a team, listen, analyze suggestions, and lead uniform decision making then you have some of the best traits any engineer can have.
What is Hackathon?
For me, the IMHO Hackathon was not about winning and it was not about the competition. I put forth my best efforts forward and tried to have a little fun in the process. After 36 hours of hacking for a cause I am passionate about, I have four good friends and a fantastic team who I look forward to working with in the future!
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