.svg)
.png)
Over 40 CINC employees, fueled by excitement and pizza, gathered for the annual CINC Hackathon, a 24-hour competition conducted by the CINC Technology team to produce innovative ideas to solve critical challenges. The results? Mind-blowing products, features, and services delivered with the ultimate goal of improving the lives of our clients and our employees.
Solving Challenges with Our Values in Mind
After kicking off the event at 6 am on a November Thursday, teams quickly dispersed across the CINC Headquarters. Some groups found quiet corners while others rallied together in the tech room. The challenge put forth was simple: find a problem and solve it!
The competition started in 2015 to empower CINC employees to live out our values while simultaneously coming together. "The hackathon is important to us as a team-building exercise and as a way to try out new ideas that don't always fit into our normal workday. We have a lot of smart, creative developers (and non-developers), and this is an opportunity for them to have fun and show off," says Nate Jones, Head of the CINC Technology team and mastermind behind the annual event.
The Impact of a CINC Hackathon
"The hackathon is a core part of who we are. It represents what CINC means for all of us: entrepreneurship, drive, and friendly competitiveness," said Alvaro Erize, CINC CEO and hackathon judge. "This was our best hackathon ever. The energy and brilliance were palpable, and the results showed it. Most of this year's projects were focused on key innovations that will allow us to iterate and innovate faster in a safe environment!"
Real-Life Gaming Achievements
In true CINC fashion, CINC Leadership did not want to have an average hackathon where they can become highly competitive, or the winning idea is too 'pie in the sky' to be practical and implement so CINC changed things up! They created a series of video game-style achievements to keep everyone united, but instead of points or badges like traditional video games, they received raffle tickets to win prizes. The more achievements you complete- the more chances you have to win a raffle prize!
The hackathon sub-achievements included:
- Someone Else's Machine: Host part of your solution in Amazon Web Services (AWS), a cloud computing software.
- The Lionel Ritchie: Stay at the CINC HQ "all Night long (all night, all night)".
- Tribal Knowledge: Bounce your concept, or show what you've built so far to someone in another department to get their thoughts and feedback.
- The Great Smash: Participate in the Smash single-elimination tournament at 4:00 pm sharp.
- We're ALL in QA: Get an outsider to test and code review your project before presentations.
- Brotherly Love: Help another team with their project.
Results Coming Soon
Thank you to all the CINC Family that participated in this year's hackathon, and congratulations on an incredible 24 hours! While we can't review the mind-blowing results just yet, keep an eye out for upcoming launches that came out of the hackathon.