Women Innovation Hackathon
The WHAT (Women Hackers Action Tank) collective – which brings together employees, entrepreneurs, academics, associations and networks either individually or representing their organizations – announces the launch of the 1st Women Innovation Hackathon, on October 12 & 13 in Paris.
Ahead of the Women’s Forum in Deauville, this event, open to all, aims to build innovative and concrete projects promoting gender diversity and equality. Thanks to digital technologies (big data, app development, connected objects, nudge, etc.) and innovative working methods: collective intelligence, with a variety of profiles, in a non-hierarchical and agile mode.
Why this Hackathon?
Would you like to work on the rightful place of women in today’s society and business, using agile methods and digital technologies?
The world is changing: gender diversity in the workplace, gender diversity in power, parity is the key to economic and social progress. Let’s use digital technology to boost these changes. Organized by the WHAT Collective on October 12 and 13, the Women Innovation Hackathon will bring together men and women with a wide range of profiles and skills to develop concrete applications in teams over a 48-hour period. These teams of 5 or 6 people (developers, designers, marketers, legal experts, idea carriers, etc.) will be working to produce a prototype, a website or any other form of application that will bring the emerging ideas to life, within a limited timeframe.
How are the two days going?
The opening ceremony will kick off the Hackathon, on October 12 at 9am, at Orange, 3 rue Mazagran, Paris 10e. With Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, President of the CNIL, and Chiara Condi, founder of Led by HER.
From 9.30am to 10am, the project leaders will each have one minute to present their idea, and set up the work teams that will transform this idea into a concrete project. To help them, Elena Rossini, filmmaker, photographer and blogger, will present Gender Gap Grader, a platform for measuring inequalities between men and women in the workplace. This platform will be made available to the hackathoners.
This first day will be brought to a close at 6pm by Cécile Dejoux, professor at the CNAM and author of the highly popular MOOC “du manager au leader”, who will engage participants on the theme of female leadership.
Participants will meet again the following morning, and at the end of the day will present their projects to the jury, chaired by Thanh Nghiem, founder of the Angenius Institute, an incubator of initiatives and ideas for sustainable development.
Brigitte Grésy, member of the Haut Conseil à l’Egalité entre les femmes et les hommes and author of “La vie en rose, pour en découdre avec les stéréotypes” (Albin Michel), and Thibault Lanxade, MEDEF vice-president in charge of SMEs, will conclude the event before handing over to Pascale Boistard, Secretary of State for Women’s Rights.
Examples of projects?
Among the projects that will be represented over the two days are the mapping of skills in the workplace, to detect hidden talent, the use of big data to compare careers, helping young mothers and fathers to get over the baby blues, and translating women’s language for men, and vice versa. The ideas put forward aim to move from words to deeds, for greater equality between men and women in the workplace, more solidarity, more confidence.
All these projects are presented on Orange’s Imagine platform, which has created a community around the theme “Numérique au Féminin”, and has already enabled nearly 100 innovation ideas to be shared. The best projects will be selected on October 6, the closing date for the call for projects, and project owners will be invited to bring their ideas to life at the Hackathon.
What do participants stand to gain?
The Hackathon takes place ahead of the Women’s Forum in Deauville (October 14 to 16, 2015). Numerous prizes are offered to the winners: presentation of their project at the Women’s Forum, coaching sessions with corporate sponsors, connected objects, endowments, and gifts.
Who organizes?
The WHAT collective brings together some thirty professional women who are working in an open, agile mode to promote a fairer place for women in society. Viviane de Beaufort, (professor at ESSEC Business School) recounts: “A little complicated to manage, I grant you, since vertical management is outlawed in intrapreneurship; step by step, driven by a common goal, we took up the challenge!” Annie Kahn, journalist at Le Monde and member of WHAT, recounts a unique experience: “In four months, we succeeded in bringing together hundreds of people with a wide range of specialities and expertise, of all ages, to collectively create the tools that will break through the glass ceiling.” Emmanuelle Krebs, Digital Learning Manager at AccorHotels, adds enthusiastically: “It’s an experiment that links innovation and gender diversity, two fascinating and interdependent subjects. It’s an opportunity to test a model of accelerated learning in multidisciplinary teams, with a problem-solving and project-based approach. And all this while enjoying the pleasure of contributing to ideas that make sense!”
Who sponsors?
For this Women Innovation Hackathon, several sponsors are backing WHAT: AccorHotels, Alcatel-Lucent, Altran, Club ComElles, Crédit Agricole, EDF, ESSEC, Le Monde, Orange. With the support of Femmes du Numérique.
What’s next?
Until October 6, 2015: Register for the Hackathon, share your ideas, your projects, comment on others’ on the Imagine Orange platform…:
October 12 and 13: Participate in the WOMEN INNOVATION Hackathon, Orange, Salle Athènes – 3 rue Mazagran 75010 Paris – Métro : Bonne Nouvelle
- Press contact: Anne Chanard, 06 46 80 5448,anne.chanard@a-c-carre.fr