Held annually at HG’s Santa Barbara HQ, DevWeek is an immersive week of exploration and creative projects focusing on the creation of next-wave data-driven solutions to empower business innovators with objective insights to make them more successful.
The week culminates in a company-wide hackathon, where teams come together to develop innovative products and continue pushing the envelope of what’s possible with HG’s Technology Intelligence.
DevWeek and its culminating hackathon is an integral part of HG’s culture – it’s a time when developers from all over the world (the longest travel time was 33 hours!) put their heads together to further progress HG’s solutions. All developer meetings are canceled so the team can focus on creating the next wave of market-leading technology. It’s a week free from distractions and full of ‘tech talks,’ engineering improvement sessions, and free-form dev days. To keep everyone on track meals are delivered directly to participants, and so are free massages!
Latest Hackathon Theme
Our latest hackathon theme, House of Insights was inspired by the recent TV series House of the Dragon, with team t-shirts featuring the series’ popular House Targaryen dragon sigil – providing inspiration (and perhaps dragon fire from team leaders) to get the job done! Team members got the opportunity to work together in person on things they otherwise may not be able to and to share and test new ideas. There’s the opportunity to propose and attend technical talks you are interested in giving or attending — on any subject.
Forest Carlisle, VP of Engineering, said, “We just had a good time. Getting to spend time in person with the people you work with every day really sets the foundation to push through not only fun times but also challenging times.”
Tech Talk Sessions
Some of the stand-out tech talk sessions were:
- Data Frames Explained
The rise of ‘data frames’ as a concept and several implementations across Scala, Python, Elixir, and Rust. - The Art Of ‘Why?’
Getting at the root of the issue rather than just answering a question. - If It Ain’t Sub-Second, It’s Last!
A look into query performance and data architecture across different systems.
CTO Rob Fox said, “I’m always in awe of how incredible this team is and what we can do together. Watching all the presentations was very inspiring. Thanks to everyone for making this another great event — the best one yet. Special thanks to those who traveled far to make it.”
Building New Solutions
Hackathon at DevWeek 2022 had some stiff competition. The teams vying for victory were: Saved User Stuff (SUS), Just Jacuuuz, Bandit, Down To Beesness, and the Insights Machine. Hackathon projects were judged by CEO Elizabeth Cholawsky, Jodi Romano-Besket (Sr Manager, Global Data Operations), Marlo Ramirez (Sr Manager, Talent Acquisition), Tracy York (EVP, Data Solutions), and Spencer Hardy (Sr Director, Global Revenue Operations). The teams competed for the following awards: Most Innovative, Biggest Improvement, and Most Potential Revenue Impact.
Sr. Software Engineer Paulo Gonzalez said, “It’s awesome to work with smart people and see all these projects come to fruition. It gave us a fresh burst of energy, made us feel appreciated, and was overall an amazing experience!”
And The Winners Are…
After a long day the award winners were:
- Most Innovative: Down To Beesness
For their development of a new tool, a simple script that customers or the CS team members can run themselves, eliminating internal back and forth between departments, the award went to Down To Beesness for the Customer self-provisioning of cloud resources project.
- Biggest Improvement: Just Jacuuuz
For making a simpler internal workflow that people can understand without command lines and text files so it’s easier to help customers and improve their user experience, the award went to Just Jacuuuz for the HG Ripple Engine project.
- Most Potential Revenue Impact: Insights Machine
For their development of an alert system that can be customization depending on the triggers that are most important to separate departments or even individual team members, the award went to Insights Machine for their When X then Y project.
We’re happy to report that HG’s DevWeek 2022 including the culminating hackathon was a great success with several solutions already under active construction and development.
Join The Number One Authority In Technology Intelligence
HG Insights is composed of a tapestry of tightly-knit teams that all work together to achieve greatness. If you feel you have what it takes to forge a career with the number one authority in technology intelligence please view our many open opportunities here.
