This year the #GirlCodeHack will take place over two days from 5-6 August, in celebration of Women’s month. The event will take place at Tshimologong Precinct and will be sponsored by Standard Bank, Entelect Software, Recruit Digital, MTN, Microsoft, Boxfusion, Ericsson and Domino’s pizza.
The objective of the Hackathon is to provide young girls, eager to join the software industry with an opportunity to develop some of the real-world skills they need to enter the business environment.
“This year, we’re pleased to announce several large corporate sponsors to the Hackathon event, GirCode is proud to champion a journey for companies to build diversity and cultivate inclusion” says Zandile Keebine, chairwoman of GirlCodeZA.
As per previous years Standard Bank are continuing their support as the headline sponsor for this event, “and will soon be announcing a grand prize that promises to cause some serious chatter in the community, and create a once in a lifetime opportunity for the winners” says Keebine.
This years’ platinum sponsors include Entelect Software, a company passionate about supporting the community and which has continued to demonstrate its support for the Hackathon every year. Ericsson, which is a global leader in delivering ICT solutions. One of their goals is for their workforce to be made up of at least 30% women by the year 2020 and it is through these kind of partnerships that they can achieve their mandate. Ericsson and Entelect employees also offer their time to perform a mentorship role to the teams on the day.
MTN are also coming on board this year, offering some outstanding vouchers for industry related courses and data packages as prizes. Domino’s pizza will be providing Saturday night dinner for the participants – ideal late night working food.
Throughout the weekend, there will be a series of spot prizes designed to keep the energies up as the girls work through the night to build their solutions.
“The growth in support we are experiencing from large technology companies, is a testament to the need for such events in the industry.”
This years’ Hackathon will require the participants to develop a solution within one of the following category areas; e-government, gamification, multi-channel retail, social welfare and productivity. The topics of this years’ workshops; HTML, business modelling, Design Thinking, web development, and Elevator pitches, were carefully designed to give participants the best chance to compete at the Hackathon competition in August.
“Following the success of the GirlCode Workshop Series, workshops which have been running since February this year, we’re expecting many of the girls participating in the Hackathon to develop some really innovative and well thought-through solutions. We hope these events will be the chance to build a network of like-minded people and hopefully find some mentors along the way too,” shares Keebine.
Click here to register: https://www.quicket.co.za/events/31599-girlcode-hackathon/