Do your 2023 Innovation Program include a Hackathon, Innovation Challenge or Ideation Sprint?
They should.
In German, there is an idiom used jokingly to describe a thing, person or solution that visibly only has benefits, satisfies all needs and meets all requirements: the mysterious “Eierlegende Wollmilchsau”. This translates to egg-laying-wool-milk-pig.
Of course, this mystical creature was only linguistically invented to illustrate the idiocracy of assuming one thing could, in fact, deliver on everything one could want.
Having worked with clients across different industries, with different budgets and different objectives for their innovation programs, I believe, the deconstructed hackathon framework, might be it – the fabled Eierlegende Wollmilchsau.
19 Micro Case Studies show how our clients elevated their Innovation Programs
At Hackworks we take our clients through a conversational discovery process to explore and consult on the legitimacy and weighting of their innovation program objectives. This creates a shared understanding which is fundamental and often allows us to sort their event into one of three categories:
PARTICIPANT FOCUSED
Is your objective focused on participants and their experience?
Objectives relating to:
- Culture
- Talent
- Education
BRANDING FOCUSED
Is your objective about corporate storytelling and branding?
Objectives relating to:
- Corporate Positioning
- Stakeholder Engagement
OUTPUT FOCUSED
Is my objective about what the participants are creating?
Objectives relating to:
- Innovation Exploration
- Innovation Implementation
All our events fall within these categories and were uniquely designed to deliver on one or multiple for the relating objectives.
PARTICIPANT FOCUSED | Talent Objective
Bell | GeekFest
Industry: Telecommunications
Core Objectives: Talent Identification + Talent Branding
This hackathon series positioned Bell as a technology leader, created a recruiting pipeline for new talent and delivered talent brand assets. On-demand, virtual workshop sessions prepared participants to showcase their skills and secure a co-op placement or full-time position at Bell.
Pre-event, educational workshops | 1-day in-person hackathon | 150 participants | CAD $10,000 in prizes
Capital One | Digital For Good
Industry: Financial Services
Core Objectives: Talent Branding + CSR + Corporate Positioning
Social innovators solved for tech challenges of local charities and NfPs in this experiential, non-competitive hackathon. Follow-on donations ensured solution impact through implementation.
3-day hackathon | 200 participants | 15 Charities + NfPs
TD Bank | Level Up Quest
Industry: Financial Services
Core Objectives: Talent Identification & Engagement + API Stress Testing
Over a month, technology savvy TD co-op students gathered once a week for a mixture of programming, coding and mentorship focused on TD’s pre-launch Open Banking API. This prepared TD to roll out TD Da Vinci externally while identifying top co-op talent.
Month-long Innovation Academy | 75 participants | 10 mentors
PARTICIPANT FOCUSED: Education Objective
Largest Alphabet Company | Cloud Sprint
Industry: Technology
Core Objectives: Onboarding + Up-skilling
Existing and desired corporate client teams participated in a prototyping hackathon to learn, collaborate and build using the clients’ Cloud Platform under a unified theme and supported by in-house cloud technologists.
2-day prototyping hackathon | 75 participants | CAD $25,000 in prizes
CIBC | ReHacktor
Industry: Financial Services
Core Objectives: Digital Transformation + Capability Building
In a series of workshops, 150 innovators from CIBC technology teams learned about the potential of emergent exponential technologies and immediately applied their knowledge delivering 25 solutions. 3 made it through R&D and into test-markets.
Workshop Series | 3-day hackathon | 150 participants | 25 Prototypes Developed
CISCO Innovation Labs | API Clarity
Industry: Technology
Core Objectives: Onboarding + Up-skilling
CISCO tasked client teams from around the world with a number of challenges aimed to explore the potential and build with APIClarity. Teams gained points as they completed challenges and gained deep understanding of APIClarity along the way.
2-day point-based competition | 180 participants from 44 countries | USD $10,000 in prizes
Bell | GeekFest Developer Conference
Industry: Telecommunications
Core Objectives: Knowledge Sharing + Capability Building
Bell hosted hundreds of software developers and architects, bringing together top talent from across Bell’s Network, IT and Bell Business Markets teams. During informative presentations, lightning talks and interactive workshops Bell employees were inspired to connect and invent for the future.
2-day Innovation Conference | 1,200 participants
PARTICIPANT FOCUSED: Culture Objective
IGM | ParadIGM Extreme
Industry: Financial Services
Core Objectives: Digital Transformation + Culture Shift
IGM used the innovative technique of a hackathon to immerse their organization in new ways of working to embrace transformation, enable change management, and drive engagement.
3-day hackathon | 100 participants | 16 ideas developed
CIBC | XX Design Challenge
Industry: Financial Services
Core Objectives: Open, Inclusive Innovation + Culture Shift
CIBC leveraged the hackathon framework to engage it’s female employees to deliver on technology enabled opportunities in the female economy.
3-day hackathon | 200 participants | 50 ideas developed
CORPORATE BRANDING FOCUSED: Corporate Positioning Objective
Oxford Properties | Oxford Hackathon
Industry: Real Estate
Core Objectives: Corporate Positioning
Oxford engaged 400 technology innovators around the globe to imagine the future of construction, promote the addition of global offices, immerse themselves in the local innovation communities and solidify their reputation as a driver of innovation in construction.
3-day innovation sprint | Global Hubs: London, Boston, Sydney, Toronto | 400 participants | USD $20,000 in prizes
GoStudio | Innovation Jam
Industry: FinTech
Core Objectives: Corporate Positioning + Community Engagement
InComm Payments’ emerging technologies incubator GoStudio, established itself as an innovation engine through engagement of universities, incubators/ accelerators and technology partners to take part in a innovation challenge and deliver Ageing-In-Place solutions.
1 month innovation challenge | 200 applicants | 50 ideas developed
CORPORATE BRANDING FOCUSED: Stakeholder Engagement Objective
FIS | Ideathon + Hackathon
Industry: FinTech
Core Objectives: Co-Creation + Product Development
FIS – a financial technology company powering 80% of the worlds financial markets – engaged corporate clients in an Ideathon to uncover unmet needs and new areas FIS could solve for. This information was presented to the FIS technology team who build solutions to these challenges in an internal hackathon.
1-day client ideathon | 3-day internal hackathon | 16 PoCs delivered
Stantec | IDEA Hackathon
Industry: Consulting
Core Objectives: Stakeholder Engagement + Corporate Storytelling
The first Stantec Idea Hackathon gathered industry professionals over a two-day forum to share ideas, build relationships, and deliver results that are relevant and meaningful for the citizens of Toronto and beyond.
Speaker sessions | 2-day ideathon | 100 participants
OUTPUT FOCUSED: Implementation Objective
Oncology Nursing Society | ONS Hackathon
Industry: Healthcare
Core Objectives: Product Development + Up-skilling
A technology inspired competition for oncology nurses across the US, designed to identify innovative ways to address challenging issues in the delivery of quality cancer care.
Tech & ideation workshops | 1 week innovation sprint | 25 participants
AquaForum | AquaHacking Challenge
Industry: Not for Profit
Core Objectives: Startup Seeding + Product Development
A program to engage and support nextGen innovators as they solve freshwater issues in North America, from protecting source water to managing climate change impacts on ecosystems. Innovators are paired with expert mentors and guided through the ideation, innovation and pitching process.
3-month, incubation program | 10 challenges delivered | 36 startups established | 1 M in seed funding secured
OUTPUT FOCUSED: Exploration Objective
TD Bank | Tech Jam
Industry: Financial Services
Core Objectives: Technology Applicability + Up-skilling + Product Development
A non-technical, digitally inspired hackathon that empowers employees with the knowledge and opportunity to imagine and develop the next digital solution to better service clients.
3-day hackathon | bi-annual with new business units providing the challenge | 7 ideas fully launched
Canadian Federal Government | CODE (Canadain Open Data Experience)
Industry: Government
Core Objectives: Opportunity Scoping + Awareness + Use Case Creation
The Canadian open data Experience (CODE) challenged innovators across Canada to use the data available on Canada’s Open Government Portal to create data applications that help Canadians.
3-day hackathon + 1 day finale | 1,300 participants | 200 prototypes submitted | CAD $40,000 in prizes
As you can see, the diversity of our innovation programs and events is as apparent as our client roster – of whom 80% host more than one event with us.
Ready to work with us and leverage the powers of the Eierlegende Wollmilchsau / hackathon framework in 2023? Let’s talk.
