We’re not sure our clients know exactly what we are doing when once a year for two days, we say “Do you mind if we move that meeting? It’s the LCvista Hackathon.” Maybe they think we are staying up all night attempting to hack our competitor’s products. Maybe they wonder if it’s just a fancy and mysterious way to give everyone a break. Or maybe, they’ve asked, and they’ve received an answer like, “It’s kind of a technology industry thing” or “This is when the magic happens!”
A hackathon goes by many different names in the industry (Hackday, Codefest, etc.) and takes on various forms, but it is most definitely a real thing. It’s a thing that LCvista makes time for once a year. And it is nothing short of FUN. We’ve experimented with different formats over the years, and they’ve all had three things in common: creative expression, camaraderie, and innovation.
This year was no different. 17 teams worked individually or in pairs to contribute to the theme of Something new, Something better. The event began with a kickoff and continued with two days of unstructured time where everyone was invited to learn, try, prototype, or do something new that helps make something better. This work culminated in presentations to the entire company showcasing their progress. The teams did everything from develop new features to create internal initiatives, making things better for our customers and our company.
Our peer-voted awards reveal the highlights.
Frank, Sr. Engineer, won Best Continuous Improvement for his build of keyboard shortcuts into the product. His work is now in our product backlog and will soon be available to customers.
Darci, Client Experience Specialist, and Adeline, Software Engineer, took the prize for Best Collaboration. They built a process that streamlines the third-party content uploads our team executes each month.
Amanda, Client Account Specialist, won Best Integrity for identifying efficiencies in account management.
Brooke, Compliance Specialist, won Best Outside Comfort Zone for the way she shared her work on documenting processes.
And Laura, VP Product, stole the show with Best Presentation, leaving everyone singing along to a musical parody of a song from Encanto describing the LCvista implementation of Jira. Elaborate? Yes.
The creative energy that each of our team members poured into this year’s hackathon was simply inspiring. So next year, when we ask to move a meeting for Hackathon, know that it’s so the magic can happen.
