S7 Airlines Hackathon
First Hackathon from an Airline; Crowdsourcing Innovative Ideas and Building the HR Brand
From May 20 to May 21, 2017
The S7 Airlines Hackathon, which took place in Gorky Park in Moscow on May 20 and 21, 2017, became the largest hackathon organized by an airline in Russia.
S7 Airlines was not only looking for startups and solutions to problems in various areas of passenger service, but also was trying to find potential employees and partner companies. The hackathon itself was held in two stages: online and in-person. In order to get to the in-person stage and start working on their product, participants had to complete a preliminary task.
Summary:
Location: the Russian Federation
Target audience: developers, designers, product managers, startups
Event type: multiphase hackathon - online and in-person
Main objective: project scouting, recruitment, creating an innovative employer brand with PR
Prize pool: 600 000 RUB
S7 Airlines was not only looking for startups and solutions to problems in various areas of passenger service, but also was trying to find potential employees and partner companies. The hackathon itself was held in two stages: online and in-person. In order to get to the in-person stage and start working on their product, participants had to complete a preliminary task.
Summary:
Location: the Russian Federation
Target audience: developers, designers, product managers, startups
Event type: multiphase hackathon - online and in-person
Main objective: project scouting, recruitment, creating an innovative employer brand with PR
Prize pool: 600 000 RUB
There were 5 tracks in the hackathon: "Big Data", "Chat Bot", "Gamification", "Finance", and "Passenger Experience". The first announcement was published on April 28, and by May 10, more than 200 applications had already been submitted. In order to check the preliminary task submissions we invited experts from the business incubator of Moscow State University. Many teams successfully accomplished the task, so the decision was made to select for the in-person stage not 50 teams (originally planned) but 54 teams from various Russian cities, from Moscow to Vladivostok. S7 Airlines sponsored a roundtrip to Moscow for the participants from other cities, so a large number of talented developers from all over Russia had the opportunity to take part in the in-person stage of the event. The S7 Airlines hackathon became the largest hackathon in Russia in terms of the number of participants.
On the second day of the hackathon, 30 experts and professionals from different departments of S7 Airlines, including the heads of departments, came to see the pitches of the best projects. Throughout the whole event, the participants were supported by company experts, who helped them to develop products.
Hackathon winners were awarded with valuable prizes: money certificates for 100 and 200 thousand rubles, travel grants for a trip to Europe, invitations to visit the aircraft maintenance center of S7 Engineering, and prizes from partners - servers.com, Voximplant and Electronic Cloud. The best teams also received nice promotional gifts in the form of cups made from Lego.
Key Performance Indicators:
— 207 projects at the first stage
— 176 participants from more than 10 Russian cities were invited to the in-person stage
— 60 targeted media partners, radio channels, print media
— Media outreach — more than 1 million people
— 11 experts, senior managers and the heads of departments at S7 Group
On the second day of the hackathon, 30 experts and professionals from different departments of S7 Airlines, including the heads of departments, came to see the pitches of the best projects. Throughout the whole event, the participants were supported by company experts, who helped them to develop products.
Hackathon winners were awarded with valuable prizes: money certificates for 100 and 200 thousand rubles, travel grants for a trip to Europe, invitations to visit the aircraft maintenance center of S7 Engineering, and prizes from partners - servers.com, Voximplant and Electronic Cloud. The best teams also received nice promotional gifts in the form of cups made from Lego.
Key Performance Indicators:
— 207 projects at the first stage
— 176 participants from more than 10 Russian cities were invited to the in-person stage
— 60 targeted media partners, radio channels, print media
— Media outreach — more than 1 million people
— 11 experts, senior managers and the heads of departments at S7 Group
«We believe that hackathons are becoming a useful tool not only for sourcing innovative ideas, but also for finding new employees. Our team successfully accomplished all the objectives set by S7 for this unique hackathon. This format was really different from many others: the mechanics of project presentation, the venue, the number of participants, etc. We learned a lot by organizing this event. The main conclusion we made is that attention to details and care for the team help to overcome any obstacles. Those are essential components of a successful major event», - Daria Zykina, CEO at Codenrock.
If you are planning to organize events – let’s discuss them, please contact us at support@codenrock.com