2023 Smart Cities Hackathon - Organizer

Seneca Polytechnic is a multiple-campus public college located in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario, Canada. It offers full-time and part-time programs at the baccalaureate, diploma, certificate and graduate levels.

The recipient of this badge has demonstrated the ability to:

• Participate in daily stand-up meetings and weekly sprints.
• Collaborate and interact with a virtual organizing team with six functional units coordinating with each other. The functional units include areas of Operations, Marketing, Student Success, Partner Experience, Human Resource, and IT.
• Collaborate with industry partners to provide value to challenge sets. This involves understanding the business concerns of the partners and presenting them to the participant community. They will act as a link between participants and mentors to ensure that the challenge sets are met.
• Use technology to aid, monitor, and control collaboration among students, teams, mentors, collaborators, and judges.
• Interact with all stakeholders in a professional and respectful manner. This includes participants, mentors, collaborators, judges, and industry partners.
• Maintain a positive and respectful attitude and communicate effectively to ensure that the hackathon runs smoothly

By providing evidence of the following:

• A successful hackathon project that improved the college's reputation for creativity.
• Detailed activity schedules and plans and complete tasks assigned to them in a timely manner.
• Active participation in weekly meetings and stand-ups is essential to ensure that everyone is on the same page and the project is progressing as planned.
• Should use relevant material (e.g., images, videos, text) when creating websites, social media posts, and other communication channels to promote their project.
• Scrum as well as retroactive reports/lessons learned are available.

And by reflecting on the entire process through the following:

• Organizer Reflection Form: Require organizers to complete a reflection form that asks them to think about their involvement in organizing the hackathon, what they learned, and how they might apply that learning to their work. This form would also question organizers on how they could improve and what they would do differently in future events.
• Peer Feedback: Encourage organizers to participate in peer feedback activities to give each other feedback on their efforts. This technique promotes collaboration and allows organizers to assess their career goals.
• Group Discussion: After the hackathon, host a group conversation with the organizers to reflect on their experiences and share their ideas. This conversation would prompt organizers to evaluate their hackathon management and propose areas for improvement.