SIGMA Labs, the high-performance talent solutions provider, brought together 150 professionals from 13 leading brands, including Asda, Zurich and HSBC, for a data engineering hackathon aimed at boosting engagement with the Summer 2024 Olympics.
The hackathon took place at Plexal at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London. 17 teams, formed of four to six engineers and analysts, were tasked with building a cloud-hosted data product aimed at boosting audience interest and engagement surrounding the Olympics, due to be held in Paris in July and August this year.
According to The IN Group’s Tech and the Boardroom survey, 30 per cent of the C-Suite are keen to learn more about the long-term implications of data as part of understanding market trends and decision making for their business, while data science and analytics is a core talent pain point for almost a fifth of boardroom leaders.
In attendance were Team GB Olympic performance psychologist Katie Mobed and Olympic rugby player Tom Mitchell. The projects were judged by an expert panel of chief data officers from John Lewis, Zurich, Diageo and Merlin.
The Olympics aligns with Sigma Labs’ core principle of high performance, catalysing high performance careers in data via exceptional education. Sigma Labs trains outstanding graduates to be top performing consultants in data and software engineering before hiring them directly and deploying them in industry.
Rich Lewis Jones, CEO of Sigma Labs, said: “Data is a significant priority for businesses, yet many still lack data experts. Our Olympics-themed hackathon showcased the power of data engineering for businesses, bringing together data analysts and scientists in a high-performance environment to raise audience engagement. Sigma Labs is focused on training candidates with high-performance behaviours to thrive in data and software roles and this hackathon was a great showcase of that.”
The full list of participates is: John Lewis Partnership, Linklaters, Mars, Burberry, Asda, Ogilvy, HSBC, Reach PLC, Capital One, Digital Intelligence, MS Amlin, News UK and Zurich
