With a fifth hackathon under its belt, the Hack the Gap team is looking at options for expanding the program for women and non-binary tech workers to other cities.
Kristen Womack, co-founder of Hack the Gap, said the event this year attracted folks from Milwaukee to observe the weekend-long hackathon in person as they consider how to bring it home. She’s also talking to people interested in taking it to Portland and Seattle. They haven’t decided what that would look like, but one option could be a franchise model.
The fifth Hack the Gap wrapped up Sunday with demos of what teams accomplished in nearly 20 work hours starting at 8 a.m. Saturday. The annual hackathon is designed to give women and non-binary people in tech the chance to build their network through a shared experience while creating a refuge away from the male-driven tech culture.
Networking is essential since most job opportunities come through people we know, Womack said. Working together on a team and getting to know how potential future hires or coworkers handle challenges or generate ideas is more valuable than chatting at a happy hour meetup.
“We’re really looking for that bonding experience,” Womack said. “That, we believe, will strengthen the network of women. So we don’t all have individual struggles without being able to lean on each other. How can we strengthen the fabric here in Minnesota?”
Womack quickly adds that that’s a question that goes far beyond just her and the hackathon, though it does attract support from sponsors with influence, including Twilio and Target, as well as local companies like Branch, Bust Out Solutions, and DevOps MSP, which gives a free ticket to its annual conference to each Hack the Gap participant.
She hopes Hack the Gap participants walk away from the hackathon feeling “a stronger sense of resolve” that they “belong in tech” and have a network of people who believe in them.
“It’s much bigger than this event,” she said. “It’s going to take a lot more than one event here or there. We all have to be working.”
