April paper on 'How Can Hackathons Accelerate Corporate Innovation?' by Myrna Flores, Matic Golob, Doroteja Maklin, Martin Herrera, Christopher Tucci, Ahmed Al-Ashaab, Leon Williams, Adriana Encinas, Veronica Martinez, Mohamed Zaki, Lourdes Sosa & Karina Flores Pineda
Growing their popularity amongst entrepreneurial individuals as well as larger organisations, hackathons provide a means to accelerate innovation. Hackathons are a scouting-ground for new talent, a test-bed for ‘crazy’ ideas, a place for cross-functional and cross-cultural collaboration, a means for identifying and promoting entrepreneurs, and an opportunity to create new businesses and business opportunities. This paper explores how hackathons can contribute to and enrich the innovation process and help to identify new talent and create a unique competitive advantage in a corporate setting. The methodology for the organisation of corporate hackathons proposed in this paper provides a three-stage, step-by-step guide covering planning, execution and post-hackathon activities. It enables companies to prepare an event that delivers value, it helps change the innovation landscape and it empowers participants and employees to act on the resulting ideas.