Earlier this month, Konica Minolta employees participated in The Smith Family Hackathon, run by Pfizer Australia. The event supported The Smith Family, one of our charity partners that helps disadvantaged Australian children to get the most out of their education to create better futures for themselves.
The hackathon was a collaborative event where teams worked together to develop creative solutions for business problems. The teams pitched their ideas to a judging panel, and The Smith Family could choose to adopt the winning idea and receive seed funding from Pfizer to help kick-start the project.
The teams were tasked with helping The Smith Family “delight and deepen their bond with their B2B partners” and “recognise their team members with authenticity, appeal, and real impact”. The ideas were judged on their impact, adaptability, and level of innovation.
The hackathon ran over two days and included presentations from The Smith Family and Pfizer to help participants fully define the problem and the opportunities, then develop their solution. Each team was given 10 minutes to pitch their solution to the panel, and the winner was announced on the day.
One of our participants, Gurbaksh Singh, pitched an idea from his team for the rewards and recognition challenge. The program they put forward focused on personalising rewards based on the individuals’ choice to provide meaningful and flexible recognition for every team member.
Gurbaksh Singh said, “The Hackathon at Pfizer encouraged an open culture where people from different background come together, brainstormed and generated ideas collectively. I was amazed to see how innovation framework helped us to stay focused on specific outcomes and achieve the best outcome in such a short period.”
The event provided an exciting opportunity for us to participate in an innovative event to support a worthy cause. We are always looking for ways to build corporate partnerships with organisations like Pfizer as well as giving our team a chance to direct their talents towards solving real problems.
The participants appreciated the opportunity to create a social impact, contribute to a great cause, and network with Pfizer Australia along with other businesses.
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