The Grace Hopper Celebration is an annual event produced by the Anita Borg Institute and in partnership with ACM, designed to celebrate Women in Computing and is the world's largest gathering of women technologists.
“Over the years, we’ve seen some exceptional product ideas pitched at the GirlCode Hackathon and so, in partnership with Standard Bank, we want to provide the winning team with outstanding opportunity to learn, grow their idea, and come back to South Africa with some inspired stories of women in tech to share with their peers," says GirlCode chairwoman, Zandile Keebine.
“As Standard Bank we are proud to be associated with initiatives that change the narrative on the opportunities available to young women. These programmes help us to grow and nurture talented individuals for the future world of work and get them to their next. Over the past year we have engaged in several programmes designed to promote a focus on women in technology and the Grace Hopper Trip for girls is another avenue for us to do this,” says Jayshree Naidoo, head: Standard Bank Incubator.
The winning team will be encouraged to write blogs and post updates each day to share with the broader GirlCode network thereby ensuring that the insights and inspirational stories make their way back to their peers in South Africa.
Says Keebine: “We want to create networks with other women in tech community groups to start sharing knowledge and expanding our reach and the value we can offer the GirlCode network. Bringing ideas back to SA that have the potential to make a significant difference to the way we encourage women in tech here.”
Over and above the grand prize, participants will be vying for second and third place spots and the chance to win several educational and data courtesy of MTN.
“We’ve never offered prizes for second and third place teams before, but we’re particularly excited about these prizes as they have the specific objective of empowering our girls to learn and grow, says Keebine.
Throughout the weekend, there will also be a social media competition and spot prizes where participants have the chance to win Google headsets and tickets to rAge, among other prizes.
“We want the Hackathon to be more than women in tech getting together over a weekend; we want the girls to feel empowered after the event. The prizes on offer from Standard Bank and MTN are all designed to do just that,” says Keebine.
The event will take place at Tshimologong Precinct in celebration of Women’s month. The objective of the Hackathon is to provide young girls, eager to join the software industry with an opportunity to develop some of the real-world skills they need to enter the business environment. As such, this years’ hackathon will require the participants to develop a solution within one of the following category areas; e-government, gamification, multi-channel retail, social welfare, or productivity.
The event will take place at Tshimologong Precinct and is aiming to cater for 150 developers. Register here.
