HackCredo – An Internal OpenCredo Hackathon

Pioneering, making a difference and creating a sense of community are some of the key things we value here at OpenCredo. On a weekly and monthly basis you will see us running Lunch & Learn sessions (with food of course), socials that range from learning the ukulele to playing Life-size Monopoly, and the occasional Dragon Boat Race and Mud Run. 

Driven by learning and solving real-world complex problems, we decided to add something new to the mix this year- an internal hackathon ‘HackCredo’. This provided a new opportunity for employees to get together and use their different skill sets to come up with an innovative way to address a challenge using software / technology and to pitch it to a jury (Dragon Den Style!)

The Challenge:

With the very real challenge of the climate crisis on the rise, this inaugural hackathon (dubbed “The Green One”) saw the teams set the task of developing some green or eco-friendly tech/software solution for the broader good of OpenCredo, some community or humankind in general.

Teams needed to consider:

• What impact the solution would have on the environment
• What the reach the solution would be (i.e. how broad, how many people could this solution effect)

May 2022 saw the announcement of HackCredo. Teams were assigned, and OCers were given 5 weeks to get their solution together and enter the Dragons Den to present their solution to the panel. A budget of £150 was provided to work with, covering expenses such as cloud fees and equipment purchases where necessary. Penalties would be applied for those overspending!

The winning team would receive the honour of having their team portrait in the OC Hall of Fame, cake and a main prize consisting of some kind of eco retreat!

“As our first proper internal hackathon and given the climate crisis, it felt fitting to start with a challenge which would allow us to both put our skills to the test and come up with something that could help move us toward a greener economy. I must say I am absolutely delighted with how this turned out. All the teams had such different ideas and approaches with each one coming up with really good innovative solutions. Seeing the buzz and discussions it generated was a refreshing reminder to me of what can be accomplished when you pull together a team of motivated individuals. Of course there was much fun and learning in the process (one of the key goals!) – I know I certainly learned way more about hardware programming than I anticipated! I feel this was a great experience, and a something we shall certainly continue to do in the future” Nicki Watt – CEO/CTO

The Jury (Panel)

Meet The Teams:

Ocers were split into four teams and so began the race to build the most impactful solution!

Greenzo

Named after the character Greenzo from a sitcom 30 Rock episode which is about a green initiative in a company.

‘I found the collaboration with people I hadn’t worked with before very interesting’ Max Flintoff – Senior Consultant

Green Bulb

Combining “green” which is associated with ecology and “bulb” with ideas, we have team Green Bulb. 

“I loved all the great ideas the other teams represented on the Hackathon. I was pretty sure we wouldn’t be winning it, right until we actually did and that was a big surprise. I really liked how much our project changed and evolved during the weeks. Started with very ambitious plans and then as the days passed we slowly cut and cut them. Thanks to the team’s efforts it came together right before the end. Was a lot of fun! Would do it again!“ Peter Vegh – Senior Consultant & GreenBulb Captain

OpenGreendo

Though initially a bit of a joke, OpenGreendo is clearly inspired by OpenCredo with a flavour of green for a bit eco-friendliness.

“It was great to work on something with people outside of my usual team. The aims of the hackathon really fired up our team, and it meant we really encourage one another with new ideas and research that I felt really opened my eyes to new ways of thinking about my carbon footprint.  My favourite part of the whole hackathon though was to see so many OCers that are not in our delivery teams working in their hackathon teams alongside their more hands-on colleagues.” James Bowkett – Technical Delivery Director

HowGreenIsYourBiscuit.Green

As everyone in the office consumes a lot of biscuits, the name was inspired by OC. Given OC’s culture, the phrase “howgreenisyourbiscuit” felt like a natural fit.

‘Overall, it was an intense but enjoyable couple of weeks working with people who i never had a chance to work with and also inspired me into going eco friendly and thinking of the environment more often’ Angilie Kaur – Business, Sales & Marketing Assistant

Conclusion

After five weeks of healthy (maybe slightly heated) competition, HackCredo came to an end. Culminating in an intense round of presentations in front of the panel, each team showcased their unique solution. Presented with some great ideas, the panel found themselves in some  lengthy debates, but ultimately came to their decision…and Team GreenBulb, with their Smart Garbage Assistant solution, was crowned the winner!

With many ideas floating about, it took the team a while to agree on what they were actually going to build, however they soon found their stride and got into the swing of things.

Congratulations Team GreenBulb on the victory!

Thank you to all the teams that participated! Keep an eye on our website for the latest updates on exciting activities and for upcoming competitions happening at OpenCredo. 

This blog is written exclusively by the OpenCredo team. We do not accept external contributions.