Hi everyone,
My name Bingqian, and I am one of the organisers of the TrueCue Women in Data hackathon.
First of all, it's amazing to see the enthusiasm from the community! I am really excited to see so many of you signed up to the hackathon already!
I saw there are some questions about forming a team, etc - for those of you that emailed our hackathon inbox, our team is very busy at the moment but they are trying to get back to all the enquires as soon as they can.
Let me see if I can help to provide some insights and clarify things a little bit here:
- Regarding forming a team, you can either sign up as a team (by entering the team name in the form - @KarolinaRoza not sure why the question did not have a space for the answer but when I checked it was working), or individually and you'll be allocated into teams.
- If you signed up individually and later joined a team (or have problem with the form), please email the inbox (womenindata@truecue.com) with your team name and we shall add this for you (probably through an Alteryx workflow!).
- I also would like to mention that the purpose of the hackathon is to create a platform and opportunity for women and girls with different skills and level of experience to work and learn together. I'm sure within the Alteryx community there is already a lot of diversity, and it's nice to form a team here. But don't worry too much about finding a team beforehand. If you do, great! If you don't, sign up anyway. You might just find your next mentor, mentee, manager, colleague, or best friend in the team you are allocated to!
- We are going to allow some flexibility of the team allocation too (we understand and anticipate that some people will sign up and have to drop out during the event), so you will still have the opportunity to change things during / after the kickoff, like topping up your team with other participants or merging teams. We are still finalising the process, so will share more in the kick-off session.
- Lastly, on participant vs facilitator (there wasn't a question here but I felt it is the right place to talk about it considering it's the Alteryx Community) - If you are quite experienced in data analysis, please consider volunteer as a facilitator! We have received an incredible amount of interest so far, and we might have to limit the number of participating teams due to a lack of facilitators. Therefore, having those of you that have already been working in this field with valuable experience would be a really meaningful addition and would allow us to accommodate and support more participants in the hackathon. I am convinced that this is going to be one of the most essential elements to the success of this endeavour.
- We are also creating a platform for all the facilitators to connect. There are already a lot of established "women in data" from lots of interesting companies and organisations who signed up to volunteer, so I am sure you will enjoy being part of the facilitator community and connecting with them!
- If you are considering becoming a facilitator, you can find some explanations on the expectations in the FAQ section at the bottom of the hackathon page: https://truecue.com/womenindata/hackathon/
- We welcome any gender to become facilitators, so feel free to spread the word - we need everyone to come together to support the next generation of women in data!
I hope this helps. And please do feel free to continue to ask questions or share your thoughts on this. It is going to be our first virtual hackathon so we are learning as we go, but it's going to be great!
