eMerge Americas, a platform that fosters innovation and investment throughout the Americas, has signed on with Wyncode Academy, a premier technical training academy to host a virtual hackathon scheduled for July 2, 2020. The hackathon, titled Unite & Fight, is in response to recent events throughout the U.S. that have reiterated the systemic racism and social injustices that have afflicted communities of color. Code Fever has signed on to be a community partner. The objective of the hackathon is to develop tech solutions to combat racism, such as apps, which will be presented at the upcoming eMerge Americas conference. City of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez will hold a meeting with the final project creators.
“Leaders in the tech and entrepreneurial ecosystem have a unique vantage point to steward innovation as a tool for systemic change,” said Felice Gorordo, CEO of eMerge Americas. “eMerge Americas is committed to taking action to combat systemic racism and leveraging tech to fight social injustices.”
HR Technology News: TecHRseries Interview with Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek, CMO at SkillSoft
The hackathon will kick off with a virtual webinar highlighting the Black community’s experience encountering racial discrimination, which will inform the project creators on the problems they will solve using technology. The teams participating in the virtual hackathon will be tasked with designing and building a solution that combats racial injustice.
“The impetus for this initiative is to create a framework to learn and educate our community about racism and channel our collective brain trust for tangible solutions to dismantle systemic racism,” said Johanna Mikkola, co-founder of Wyncode Academy. “By design, we’re extending the initiative to continue after the hackathon for multiple months because we want an ongoing solution-oriented dialogue.”
HR Technology News: DHGE Launches Resilience Program for COVID-19 Frontline Workers