In a global marketplace where it’s more and more difficult to attract tech talent, all the major tech players and startups are organising competitions to attract techies and build software technologies from scratch in a quick, friendly and fun environment.
With this landscape in mind and the technology focus of ESMT Berlin, the Entrepreneurship Club I joined when I started my MBA in January 2018 put organising the School’s first-ever hackathon at the centre of its agenda for the year. We thought this event would be a must-have for the School to further strengthen the bridge between management experts and techies; ESMT students have to become even more aware of the possibilities offered by technology while developers need to gain business insights right from the early stages of
product development.
Thanks to the support of the whole School and the hard work of a group of extremely dedicated students from the MBA and Master’s in Management programmes, we were able to make it happen. It was a real project management exercise, where every team member had to work on specific tasks and build processes and tools from scratch, from website rollout to sponsorships, from facility management to staffing. Without an amazing team this huge event could not have been possible.
I was in charge of marketing and communications and my first concern was how to attract MBA students from around Europe as well as local techies.
We had strong connections with other Business Schools and a small budget for some digital marketing campaigns, so more than 100 people took part in our overnight event: there were more than 70 participants – among them students from ESMT Berlin, INSEAD, HEC Paris, and MIP Politecnico di Milano – plus 13 mentors, four judges, and many other enthusiastic guests who attended the technical and inspirational sessions, as well as the final pitch session.
Creative thinking, teamwork, a lack of sleep, and many energy drinks were the main ingredients of our winning recipe. It was rewarding to see how participants from different Schools, countries and backgrounds all performed at their best overnight, despite sometimes dealing with conflict situations, which were effectively managed through the valuable support of mentors.
The challenge for the event was to develop solutions for the future of education, a topic of major relevance to Business Schools and to society as a whole, especially in a world where new technologies are more accessible and new job titles appear every day. Those within companies that are experiencing this were key on the day. Mentors and judges were the stars of the event. There were experts from global corporations, startups, and digital ventures working at the Lean Startup Co., IBM, Daimler, Delivery Hero, Techstars, HelloFresh, BCG Digital Ventures, the Founder Institute, Outfittery, Charitè, and Helix.
The competition was tough and the judges had a tough time when choosing a winner on Sunday morning. Team Athena, with a project on personalised learning powered by machine learning and artificial intelligence, won the competition and each team member received an award of €1,000 EUR, sponsored by the Helix Foundation.
In addition to Helix, many other brands contributed to making the first ESMT hackathon memorable, fun, and tasty: IBM, BRLO, Red Bull, Delivery Hero, and METRO.
Combining MBA studies with this event was not easy, but again the rewards were huge: we challenged ourselves with a real project, we had a lot of fun, and not only did we further strengthen our bonds within the team, but we also created new ones beyond the School borders.
I hope that future students can build on this experience and launch many other hackathons, which can offer food for thought for students and professionals who aspire to become tomorrow’s leaders.
The ESMT Entrepreneurship Club strongly believes that business people and tech professionals with different working experiences, backgrounds, and nationalities need to work more closely and keep sharing their ideas to find solutions for future business needs.
The hackathon is also a concrete opportunity for the School to foster its mission: developing entrepreneurial leaders who think globally and act responsibly.
Laura Perazzolo is an MBA Candidate at ESMT Berlin
