High praise for HAKA-thon event
After an intensive 48 hours, the first Hack Hawke’s Bay (The HAKA-thon) event has sparked a sense of inspiration in the region, organisers say.
Co-organiser Barry Soutar said the weekend’s event was the first time the joint accelerated business activation programme from Datacom and T3W (National Ma¯ori Tech and Investment) had been run in the Bay with 80 participants.
“The energy in the room over the two days was amazing, and the solutions presented at the end, simply brilliant. It more than delivered on our hopes for the event.”
Savannah Peterson, a visiting technology leader and connector from Silicon Valley on her 13th visit to New Zealand, said: “The hackathon was massively inspiring; but more importantly I am confident we’ll see an impact as a result in the region.
“I suspect sometimes that Kiwis don’t know how special they are, and the magic that happens when you celebrate and empower Ma¯ori business.
“What’s good for Ma¯ori is good for the Bay and for New Zealand, and it’s good for the world. I can’t say it enough,” Peterson said.
“I was particularly impressed to see the synergies between local government and creative minds in the region.
“Hawke’s Bay is a fantastic place, and I hope that this weekend reminded participants of that.
The event successfully blended Ma¯ori aspirations and outcomes for job pathways and opportunities with the development of commercial product/service prototypes.
The winner on the day was a talent attraction and retention platform hosted by Business Hawke’s Bay, second place went to Empowered, a game-based teaching platform for dyslexic students and third was Clearly, a consumer-facing carbon footprint comparative app hosted by Napier City Council.