Tom Marrs is a technical architect for the Perficient team in Denver, Colorado and for the second year in a row he’s donating his time to Hack4Colorado. Hack4Colorado is part of a series of events located all over the country that encourages technical professionals to pool their talents to create much-needed digital tools for nonprofit organizations. We asked Tom to tell us more about the program.
Tom began by giving an overview of the weekend. “People don’t know what team they are going to be working with when the arrive,” he explained. “I’s a good mix of people from the start-up community and more traditional organizations. Friday night is where the different groups pitch the ideas they would like to see come to life, and once all of the ideas are presented people break off into teams for the weekend. Most of the work takes place on Saturday and early Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon is when the event starts to wrap up and the groups give presentations showcasing their products. There is an awards ceremony at the end and it’s encouraging to see what can be created in a short amount of time when the right people come together.”
We asked Tom if there was any direct benefit to the 80-100 volunteers participating in the event. “It’s an excellent opportunity to network with your peers and use some of the newer technologies,” he said. “You won’t find many projects built with .NET or Java; most of the teams are using Ruby and new APIs. We’re also fed well by Chipotle, Panera, and Brothers BBQ so I’m sure that’s a motivator for many people!”
Hack4Colorado is Friday May 30th through Sunday June 1st 2014 at Galvanize,1062 Delaware, Denver, CO. Anyone is welcome to attend.
Have you participated in any hackathons or similar events for a good cause? Let us know if the comment section below.
Perficient Colleague to Participate in Hack4Colorado
by Eric Osterman on May 30th, 2014 | ~ minute read
