LinkedIn’s Hackdays are a fun monthly tradition that gives employees a break from the normal work routine, and where company engineers can team up to simply build something interesting. Sometimes the creative ideas that come from a Hackday are implemented into the LinkedIn website. The idea behind the Hackday, giving creative people the space and freedom to innovate, is the same as the idea behind Facebook’s Hackathons. The Hackdays sometimes have a theme, such as a Hackday on Veteran’s Day last year that created tools allowing veterans to better search LinkedIn’s job postings using the skills gained from their military service. At the end of this month, LinkedIn will host a Hackday devoted entirely to women.
The DevelopHer Hackday (get it?) will begin on June 30, and will have the goal of encouraging more women to participate in Hackdays, enter the engineering field, and take on entrepreneurial roles. The event is open to the public, and women of all ages are encouraged to attend. All that is required is a laptop and valid ID. The LinkedIn Engineering Twitter account yesterday Tweeted out that requests for an invite will be ending soon:
DevelopHer Hackday: A Hackday for Women. Judges: @christinaallen, @msquinn, @rashmi. Last chance to request an invite! http://t.co/7bsNPN3B
The DeveloopHer Hackday will take place at the LinkedIn Headquarters in Mountain View, California. Check-in begins at 10 am, and hacking starts at 11 am. Completed hacks are due at 11 am the next day, July 1. As an overnight session of coding can be grueling, a yoga break is scheduled for 8 pm that evening. The hacks will be judged by Christina Allen, Director of Product Management at LinkedIn; Rashmi Sinha, CEO of Slideshare (which LinkedIn recently acquired); Megan Quinn, partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; and one surprise judge. Prizes include Amazon gift cards, dinner with the judges, and Apple devices.
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